Teens Unite is all about community, supporting the development of friendships and relationships. For the young people who come to our activities and events, cancer isn’t the thing that makes them different, it’s the thing that unites them. We have countless stories of incredible friendships that have developed through the young people’s attendance at events. Two young people who met at one of our Residential Stays, both now cancer free for some time, are engaged to be married next year. Friends they made through the Charity will have supporting roles on the day, professional services who provide support on the Stays are involved in the photographing and videoing of the day.
Freya tells us a little bit more about her story with Tyler:
“We met on the Teens Unite Activity Stay 2016 on the first day in the garden. There were ice breaker games, but we just hit it off as I studied and was about to be a Physio and he was about to be a Physio Assistant, so we had things in common straight away. We bounced off each other and had a laugh, we were definitely friends to start with and throughout the Stay.
Our relationship was largely long distance as I live in Sussex and Tyler was in Essex, seeing each other on weekends, spending time with friends and family together. I then went traveling for 6 months and when I got back we decided to look for a house. I moved in with Tyler and his parents and got settled with my new job. We quite quickly found our first perfect home, lived together for a year and then Tyler proposed to me in our living room - very private and lovely. We had both spoken about marriage but it was still a big surprise. The date is set now for next November.
There’s a comfort in finding someone that understands what you’ve been. We don't have those awkward conversations around treatment and the lasting effects - the other one just understands and supports the other.
We love our Teens Unite family too. We all get along so well and support each other. We regularly meet up and it's nice to still have those conversations with people that have been in your situation and see how other people have flourished too. It’s also nice to have people there who understanding support when the bad things happen with a cancer diagnosis.
The people we've met through Teens Unite will also be a part of our special day. We’ve invited a few to the day and most for a big party in the evening to celebrate! It's lovely that something so special has come out of something that was quite an awful experience for the both of us.
We’re now able to look to the future. We want to continue building our lives together, we're thinking about a family of our own and having lots of adventures as life is too short as we know too well.”
