Rose Tattoo
My name is Matt Thompson and I have CF (with diabetes). I’m nearly16 and am a keen musician, playing both the guitar and drums. I love music and recently I performed ‘We Will Rock You’ with my band at our end of year school concert.
Life is good now, even though last year in April I went through a rough period where my lung function was only 39% and my weight was 50 kilos (given I’m over 6 feet tall, that’s pretty thin). We were even investigating how to get placed on the lung transplant list. I would like to say it was my own will power that made me change my negligent attitude towards my treatment but what really opened my eyes was the death of a friend of mine who lost his life last year due to a brain tumour.
I attended his funeral as did most of my year from school, but what really changed my perspective towards my health was his little sister. At his funeral she read out a poem entitled ‘My Brother’. This made me think about my family and most of all my little sister. So I made a promise to myself to never let my family go through the grief of losing me due to my slap-happy attitude towards my treatment and to stop pretending that I didn’t have a health condition.
Since that day I have gained over 22 kilos and my lung function is over 60%. It wasn’t easy but I feel like I can now run through brick walls. I also recently got a tattoo of a rose with a scroll inscribed with the words sixty-five roses. For me this tattoo is a part of me embracing my condition -I love it. I strongly recommend any kid with CF to take their treatment seriously because there’s nothing you can’t do and it’s only a burden if you want it to be.
