My beautiful daughter Tanyel should be celebrating her 28th birthday today.
A confident young lady who fought so hard with all her strength, courage and positivity but never made it. We lost her in January 2016, at the tender age of just 20, to childhood cancer.
Cancer doesn’t discriminate.
She was diagnosed with cancer, a rare form of Ewing’s sarcoma (bone and soft tissue), at the age of 18. I remember very clearly, as Tanyel turned to me and asked “am I going to die mummy“.
Tanyel was a very healthy and fit elite gymnast. She spent most of her childhood from the age of 6 until her teenage years training over 20 hours a week – she would finish school and then go to training, every day. This took up a lot of time,dedication and discipline. She was so mature for her age and I feel this is the discipline from her gymnastics.
She was strong , positive, full of love and a beautiful young lady who would do anything for her loved ones.
To get this diagnosis six days after her 18th birthday was unimaginable. We were told by her oncologist at the Royal Marsden teenage cancer unit that she was just one of the 11 children/young adults between the ages of 0-24 to be unlucky (now that number has risen to 13 a day). She was in remission for just 6 months but then she relapsed, and the prognosis wasn’t good .
Tanyel started getting chest pains, and we were backwards and forwards to the GP. We were always told it’s inflammation and because she is fit and young nothing serious. By the time she was diagnosed it metastasized (so she had this in other areas of her bones).
Childhood cancer is something GP’s aren’t aware of much about, and of course nor did we as her parents.
I won’t go into detail what her loss has done to me but I will say I didn’t want to live 😞My husband Ceyhun tried to keep me going , he was stronger than me mentally, and all credit to him I’m still here .
The charity Tanyel’s Smile started from here. I want everyone to know that my beautiful kind hearted precious girl lived. And we will forever be proud of her .
Tanyel’s Smile is a charity based in the UK raising money to help children and young adults age 0-24, and their families, who are diagnosed with childhood cancer and receiving treatment in Northern Cyprus.
The money we raise helps us take them out for meals with their families, give vouchers for clothing/food, buy presents, and transfer money to families who are in financial difficulties. We also grant special wishes like sending terminally ill children on holiday , and buy them anything they would want like eg. football team shirt. It’s a nonprofit charity registered with charity commission UK. We have 4 trustees and myself and husband Ceyhun Uzun . We are all volunteers.
We chose to start and run this charity for children and young adults in Cyprus because Tanyel loved spending her six weeks holiday in Cyprus.
