Liam

Standing in a pub last night a lovely looking young bloke came up to me and said hello using my name. I didn't think I knew him until he reminded me of something that happened 12 years ago.At that time I was working as a teaching assistant in an infant school. We had come back after the summer holidays to be told that a little boy Alan (I've changed names) had been diagnosed with cancer in his leg he was only six. It sort of became my role to give Alan as much support as he needed to enable him to continue at school while he underwent his treatment.As a team all of the staff became very involved in trying to support Alan and his family. We tried to get as much information as possible and liaised with all the medical professionals as well. When Alan had stays in hospital we would send taped messages from the rest of his classmates with lots of pictures and stuff and a couple of times we made the trip to Great Ormond Street to visit him.Now Alan had a best friend a little boy called Luke (name changed again) and Luke was so loyal to Alan. As Alan's condition changed and he became wheel chair bound Luke would fiercly guard Alan and make sure that no one said or did anything to hurt Alan. He would push Alan around as much as he was able to and gave up his lunch times and playtimes to sit with Alan when he felt he couldn't go into the crowded playground. Luke was such a loyal friend for such a little boy he took on a huge responsibility and of course we needed to look after Luke as well.Luke's own behavour changed he started to become an angry little boy suddenly having huge tantrums and I spent many a time sitting with Luke reading books like Angry Arthur and finding ways to help Luke with his own anger which was perfectly understandable. We made little Angry Arthur cards that Luke could use to show he was feeling stressed and we'd rescue Luke and go off for a chat. During one of our chats Luke said he was worried that because he had kicked Alan the previous year it was his fault that Alan now had cancer. He was six and was trying to make sense of this horrible disease that was taking over and slowly or actually quite quickly killing his best friend.Alan died just after his seventh birthday and we all grieved for him and then we moved on like you do.Luke was that gorgeous young man and he recognised me, told me I had not changed a bit apart from longer hair but what really made my night, my week, my month ...was that he said what a difference I had made for him during that difficult time. He said I had been his rock and that he would never forget how we had supported him. He even remembered the Angry Arthur cards!I was so dead chuffed and pleased and even now I feel emotional because Luke took the time to come and approach me to say thank you.