I let my girl have all in life

TNP PICTURE: Gary Goh

HOW DO you mother a child with a terminal illness?

With the same unconditional love, and more, that you would give a healthy one.

But for Mrs Sandra Fairclough, a Briton who has lived in Singapore for 17 years, the pain of mothering her sick daughter Chelsea is so intense she sometimes wishes her daughter had cancer instead of her current illness.

Chelsea, 13, suffers from brainstem hemangioma-inoperable – there are lesions in her brainstem, the most compact and important part of the brain, which bleed.

Mrs Fairclough says she feels for children with cancer, but at least, with cancer, doctors can talk about timelines and the good, the bad and the ugly. Chelsea's condition means no one knows and she could die at any moment.