One of the most stressful experiences I had during Sam’s illness was when he had just had his first operation. It was about 3 days after; I had come to the hospital to sit with Sam while his Mum and Dad had a bit of a break. While Jane and Steve were still there the nurses had come in to tell Sam he would be getting up and possibly having a shower, Sam was not impressed with this decision! This would be his first time out of bed since the operation and he was clearly very frightened. But the nurses needed to get him moving. Anyway Jane and Steve left. As we know Sam could be rather stubborn and could have a little bit of a temper, he kept refusing to get up, this was because he was still in a lot of pain and very scared. Eventually 3 nurses came in and said ‘right Sam its time to get you on the move’ you could see the poor boy was terrified! But instead of getting upset he howled verbal abuse at everyone in the room, we all tried to explain that he needed to get going and it would be for the best and help with his recovery, obviously it wasn’t going to be easy and he would have to make a real effort. After what seems hours the nurses managed to get Sam to sit on the edge of the bed. Then said he would have to walk to the door then to a chair were he could sit for a bit. The nurses were very patient and although Sam kept saying he couldn’t do it (and using the odd swear word), he eventually walked to the door and then to the chair! Phew! It was such an anxious moment and the atmosphere in the room was very stressful! I kept telling him he could do it. He kept telling me to go home!!! Although Sam was very scared, he still dealt with it all with such courage. By the time he got in the chair he was exhausted, the sweat was poring off him, he was white as a sheet! but some what relieved. I told him ‘I knew you could do it’ but he just looked at me and replied ‘you still here’! I said back ‘Now Sam you can say what you like to me, I am not going anywhere, besides I know you don’t mean it’. Apart from asking him if he wanted anything we both sat in silence for some time. Then he asked me if I wanted one of his sweets! After about 2 hours I could see he was finding it difficult to stay awake and ask him if he wanted to go back to bed, but I said I think the nursing will want to you do a bit more walking before you can. He agreed so I called the nurse. He managed to walk to the door and then got back into bed. This time although it was painful and took a lot of effort he was more confident and not so frighten. Once he was back in bed and lying down I said to him ‘I know you don’t like me saying but you did it Sam! you must be so proud’ he replied ‘yeh I know, I did do it didn’t I’ and gave me a little smile. Sam fell straight to sleep until his mates arrived later that afternoon. Sam was really pleased to see his friends, they would never have guessed the trauma he had been through earlier! I left them to it. About 3 days later I went back to the hospital to see Sam and he couldn’t wait to show me his walking, by then he was walking right along the corridor, he was practically running up and down waving his crutches in the air and everything!!! It really was a proud moment! One I will never forget!