September 22 is observed as World Rose Day, for bringing happiness and joy in the lives of countless individuals on the planet who are fighting with this disease called cancer. It's also a day to spread more awareness about the disease. On World Rose Day, hand-made roses, gifts, and cards are offered to patients. Rose, a logo of affection, tenderness, and concern, is given to cancer patients to offer them strength and hope as they face the cancer battle. This world rose day must not be confused with the world cancer day which falls on 4th Feb.
What is the world rose day and how did it come to be celebrated?
World Rose Day is observed in the memory of 12-year-old Melinda Hathaway Rose from Canada. On Feb 14, 1994 — cruelly, Valentine’s day— Melinda Rose Hathaway was diagnosed with Askin's Tumor, a rare and invariably lethal form of cancer that strikes the soft tissue of the spinal column. She died on the evening of Sept 22nd, 1996, 3 years later just at the age of 15. Melinda Rose's small life touched the lives of so many people. Rose, till her final breath, didn't give up her hope of survival. In the last six months of her life, she continued to put up a fight and made each day count by touching the lives of those around her in a positive way.
“My name is Melinda Rose Hathaway, I am 15 years old, I live in Western Canada, and I have cancer.”
The above is the first line you would see on her webpage which she created for herself, just below a bald picture of her titled “Fuzzy Gnome”. She set up this site on Valentine's day of 1996, two years down the line fighting with Askin's Tumor. By the time she died more than 9000 visits had been made to her page titled “Monkey-boy”. A peculiar title indeed. She made this website to help others who like herself were fighting cancer. She explains that she created this page so that she could do at least a little something to help provide other newly diagnosed cancer Kids and their caregivers with hope, with access to some of the important information that they might be looking for on the internet, and with contact to other cancer Kids, caregivers and related sites all over the world. The website contains resources like contacts for kids fighting with cancer and related information for caregivers (It was just the beginning of the .com boom), Her pictures and a little more details about her just like a normal kid and not as a girl who’s fighting a disease, special thanks to those who helped her build her website and even news articles about her website which were published during the days she lived. Starting just a few weeks after her initial diagnosis, Melinda spent a lot of her time comforting and counseling other young patients and their caregivers. Mostly she was the only one who could bring a shell-shocked Cancer Kid out of their protective cocoons that they sometimes throw around themselves. Her will to live and zest for life, her unending hope with her genuine caring let her achieve what many people only ever dream about - she reached out and restarted other people's hearts. Hopefully, through this site, which she worked so hard to complete, this dream of Melinda’s can continue. Even though Melinda Rose lived a little life, the life she lived has made such a big impact on the lives of those around her.
How can you help people fighting with cancer this Rose day?
If one of whom you know has cancer, you may be wondering the best way to support him or her. Even though you would like to help, it can be hard to know what to do.
Prepare yourself before speaking with them
Offer some practical help
Form a support team to look after them
Be a good listener
Always remember that they are also just ordinary individuals. Treating them with sympathy can be one of the worst things you could do. Be normal to them and treat them the same.
Gift ideas
Buying them some thoughtful and useful gifts is one of the best things you could do this Rose Day to any person you know is going through cancer. Check 60plusindia’s shop by needs to buy the best gift you can. They have everything from Ergorest Footrest, Shower chairs, Bed Top tables, adjustable backrests, multifunctioning walkers, etc.
The message you can carry on this World Rose Day!
(Right from her website by her parents)
TO PARENTS: Don't ever take your kids for granted. Their lives, and yours, can change in an instant, leaving you crying every night as you remember the way things used to be before your own personal disaster, and how things in the future will never be as you imagined them when you held your newborn child in your arms for the first time. But if it does happen, you will somehow find the strength and the courage to do the things that have to be done ... always remember that.
TO KIDS: Having cancer is not cool - it hurts real bad for a long, long time, so don't do anything that might increase your chance of getting it. And those kids that you sometimes see in a wheelchair, with a very white face and little or no hair ... try to go out of your way to treat them like a friend and not as someone who is "different". After all, they were just like you a few weeks ago, and surely you can take just a little time to share some of your future with them to make up for the future that they might not have. And if you do get cancer, remember that there can be life after cancer diagnosis ... Melinda is proof of that! It's true that your life will change a lot, but at least some periods of it can be both beautiful and rewarding.
TO EVERYONE: In the words that Melinda used so often: "Life is so much better when you concentrate on the things that you can do and on the things that you do have, instead of sulking and worrying about the things that you can't do or that you can't have".
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