Mother was in the living room, and every day I could tell her about the school day

Joachim lived with his mother's cancer from the age of 7 to 12. At first he was constantly afraid that she was going to die, but gradually he calmed down. It wasn't until the last year, when the sickbed was in the living room, that he understood that time was short.

Although it was a difficult time, he also has many good memories, he says.

Joachim is currently 16 years old and in the process of training to become a mechanic. He also got a bonus little sister and life has in every way moved on, even though he lost his mother at the age of 12.

Joachim was at the Folkemødet, where he told what it has meant to him that his mother received life-prolonging medication.

"My mother had cancer in almost all of her body. It started as breast cancer and spread to the rest of the body. She got all the side effects. You could see that she wasn't feeling well, but she wanted to try all the treatments that were available so that she could live longer and be with her family," says Joachim, who wishes he could get medicine so that got more time and energy to live without having as much pain as his mother had.

Was mostly afraid the first years

“For the first few years I was very afraid that she would die. If she didn't immediately answer the phone, I thought 'now it's happened'. But I became more and more calm because she survived for so long. It wasn't until last year, when she got a hospital bed into our house and lay in it, that it dawned on me that she was sick. She didn't have much energy. But we tried to be around her and have a good time and do something together like bake a cake. Her bed was in the living room, so when we watched a movie, she could join. We all knew it wasn't going the right way, but we had hope," he says.

Take care of the good memories

Joachim's best advice to others in the same situation is to make sure you make some good memories together and use the time to experience what you want. Because even if you know that time is short, you don't know when it's over:

"We knew she was going to die, but we didn't know it would happen so quickly. She was going to hospice, but shortly before she was going to go there, she felt really bad and then she died shortly after I got to the hospital," he says.

"I am very happy that I had some good times with my mother. When I came home from school, I could just say 'hello' and then she was there and we could talk about how the school day had been. I am pleased. Those are good memories for me," he says.