CHARMAIN NAIDOO: The fine art of overstaying your welcome
'The desire to go on is deep – even when it is painful and the end promises to be messy'
I am constantly surprised by the astonishing lengths to which people will go to survive. The will to live is strong. The survival instinct kicks in and – in almost every instance – people fight to stay alive, to keep going, even when there is firm evidence that their expiry date is imminent. An enduring, unpleasant, memory of my childhood was watching Uncle Roy (not a relative, but an elderly close family friend dearly loved by my grandpa, and my parents) die. It was the 70s, dark days for cancer treatment. Uncle was diagnosed with testicular cancer and, in those draconian days, given the best treatment on offer at the time. Today, medical journals report, there is a survival rate of 98% from this once virulent cancer.But in the 70s and 80s chemo was still experimental. The greatest fear was that Uncle Roy would die from the horrific side effects of his treatment listed by his doctors as a stroke or a heart attack. His side effects were harsh and cruel: he was exhausted all the time...
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