Picture Gallery

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Shannon's Skin Cancer

Earlier this week Shannon had her left nostril cut away to remove skin cancer. In order to rebuild the nostril she then had an operation to attach a huge lump of skin from her forehead to the side of her nose. They also took cartilage from her ear which has left a sizeable hole. But as well as having this horrible thing attached to her face – which obscures her vision and looks horrendous – she’s also got stitches running from her brow to her hairline. She looks as though she’s either had a bad car accident or been attacked with a meat cleaver. She’ll be disfigured like this for at least a month, followed by many more months of healing.

I feel very sorry for her. It’s a terrible thing.

So far though she’s been absolutely brilliant. A few wobbly moments but generally hanging on – despite being in quite a bit of pain and discomfort. To be honest, I don’t think it’s quite sunk in.

As well as knowing that she can’t go out looking like that – she can’t cover her face up – there are the practicalities of handling Maggie by making sure she doesn’t grab her face. Of course, we can’t just tell Maggie not to do this as she wouldn’t understand. But even if she did understand she can’t control her movements. A quick whack from her flailing hands would be enough to undo the whole thing.

Naturally, the overall feeling is that this is just another thing to add to the pile of misery. Because it’s not enough that she has a disabled child to care for.

But I imagine she’ll do what she always does: get on with it. And be as strong and as determined as she always is. Or, rather, always appears to be.