Sorry

My name is Marie and I am from France. I’m 17 and I go to a high school in Toulouse, where there are all my friends that I love very much ! A few weeks ago, I met the director of I learn America in person with some classmates and my English teacher, it was really instructive to learn that there are so many stories written on this website, and how the movie was directed !

My personal story is not very uncanny, but I really think that we all have a story to tell, even when every thing seems to be normal, therefore I’m going to tell a moment of my life which has been striking.
First, I have one sister and two brothers, from 16, 14 and 10 years old. When my little brother who is 10 now, called Paul, was 3, he started at one time to say to my Mom that his belly hurt, so my mother brought him to the doctor but she didn’t see anything. We continued to live normally, without being alarmed. But a few weeks later, my brother was very sick, so my parents brought him at the hospital, and September the 10th was the worst evening of my life… Paul had leukemia. First, I cried a lot because I thought that it couldn’t happen in my little happy family, I was 10 and as soon as my father had told me that my little brother had a cancer, the tears flowed by themselves. My little Paul went to the hospital and had a lot of doctors at his bedside. In January we had to go at the hospital to do a blood test with my other brother and my sister. The fact is that a leukemia is a blood cancer, your spinal cord is attacked so my little brother needed a new cord. And the one who was compatible was none other than… me ! Obviously, I consented and I went to Lyon with my father in March, where my little Paul was with my mother, and I gave some of my spinal cord to him. My mother offered me a plush Hello Kitty that I still have, because I was “brave”, but in my mind I wasn’t, I HAD to do it, I had to be helpful for once and to save my little brother’s life ! And finally, it was a powerful experience, but it wasn’t finished yet, Paul did chemotherapy and lost his hair, and it took 5 years to heal him, but now we can say that he is recovered and I cherish him like if he was from my own blood! (even if we argue sometimes as sisters and brothers do :).
I can say that I am glad to have done it and I would do it again if I had to.