Katie’s story

I lost my Dad just over a year ago in March 2025, after he lost his battle to cancer just two months after his re diagnosis (he had battled lung cancer twice prior throughout my early teenage years). I was only 21 when he passed away and in my second year of university.

His death has changed me entirely, I went from feeling so secure of everything, especially what I had planned for my future. But his death changed that completely. Following his death I experienced such doubt and confusion as my grief has been so hard to navigate. Initially I tried to push it away, desperate and determined to complete the assessments and exams for the second year of my university course. It’s only now, having finished my degree that I’ve finally allowed myself the time and grace to actually grieve him and the person I was before I lost him.

I’ve lent heavily on my friends and family to help get me through this difficult time.

But life is made a little easier knowing that my dad would be so so proud of me for everything I have achieved in the past year, and even though he won’t physically be there, I know in some way he will be walking across that graduation stage with me.

Loosing him in my early 20s has been so difficult, knowing that he will miss some of the most important moments of my life, it’s especially painful when I can see my friends and other people my age getting to enjoy those moments with both parents. It’s charity’s like It’s Time that have helped me feel less alone in my grief reading the stories and posts of others who have experienced similar things.