“My terminal cancer won’t show me the other side of the lockdown.” So he wrote in a blog published on Guardian Elliot Dallen. In 2018, then 29-year-old Elliot – born in Cardiff and residing in London – was diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma. It was April 2020, in full pandemic emergency, when the boy on the British site promised that he could not live the last months of his life as he imagined, due to anti-contagion restrictions. 5 months have passed since then and many things have changed.
His sister moved in with him in June, a breath of fresh air after days of solitude, from which she tried in every way not to let herself down. He tried a new experimental therapy that could extend his life by a few years, but the energies slowly started to abandon him and “I realized I couldn’t afford it. Life for me is living, not accumulating years. This treatment made my life impossible “.
Elliot realized he had to accept the inevitable: there was no cure for his disease. “I thought this awareness would set me free”, he always writes on Guardian, a few weeks after his death, “I was wrong. Having nothing left to fight for, I just had to wait. The battle became mental and forced me to reflect ”.
He, who lived his time without repentance, now wants to share with others the awareness he has reached, hoping they can be a starting point to reflect on even for those who are not in the same conditions as him.
“I understood the importance of gratitude”, he writes, “After receiving the diagnosis, he found comfort in remembering what he had: an extraordinary family, friends present.” Second point: “A life, if lived well, is long enough. This can mean several things: for some traveling, for others staying active. The human body is a wonderful thing, you only appreciate it when it starts to let you down. Take care of your body, it’s the only one you have. Most people assume they are living to a ripe old age, I have been forced to view aging as a privilege. Don’t complain about gray hair, wrinkles: be happy to have them. If you feel you haven’t made the most of the last year, try to make better use of the next one ”.
Do something for others, says Elliot, protect the planet. And above all, allow yourself to be vulnerable to connect with others: “We live in a society that rewards independence, but cancer often takes it away from you. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it gave me the best two years of my life. Vulnerability has allowed me to understand that wonderful people are my sister and my parents, my friends ”.
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