“영주야 힘내자! 제발 견뎌만 다오.”

   초등학교에도 들어가기 전 이웃에 살던 가족이 있었습니다. 가시나무 울타리로 담장을 친 바로 옆집이었지요. 우씨네는 딸 부잣집이었습니다. 위로 줄줄이 딸이었고 막내가 아들이었습니다. 우씨네 자녀들은 머리가 좋아 다들 대학에 쑥쑥 들어갔고 장학금을 받으며 공부했습니다.

철주라는 이름의 막내아들은 남동생과 동갑이었고 절친으로 지냅니다. 머지않아 오십이 되는 철주는 의사로 일하며 주위에 큰 덕을 끼치며 살고 있습니다. 철주 바로 위로 세 살 터울의 누나가 있습니다. 누나의 이름은 영주입니다.

철주 누나 영주는 나보다는 세 살 아래입니다. 영주와 여동생 미경이는 동갑으로 제일 친한 친구가 되었지요. 초등학교에서 중학교 졸업반이 되기까지 두 친구는 늘 전교에서 일이 등을 다투어 주위의 부러움을 사곤 했습니다.

영주는 대학을 졸업하고 공기업에서 일하는 유능한 청년을 만나 결혼을 하였고 행복하게 잘살고 있다는 소식이 들려왔습니다. 80년대 후반인지 90년대 초인지는 정확히 알 수 없으나 서울의 강동구인가에 아파트를 샀는데 값이 많이 올라 부자가 되었다는 이야기도 들은 듯합니다. 아들도 의과대학을 졸업한 후 수련의 과정에 있다는 소식을 들은 게 년 전입니다.

우씨네 집안에서 딸로는 막내 격인 영주는 이제 곧 오 학년 삼 반이 됩니다. 큰 키에 여유 있는 웃음으로 주위 사람들을 편안하게 해주던 영주. 머리가 좋아도 머리 좋은 표 한 번 내지 않고 끊임없는 농담으로 사람들의 마음을 열어주던 영주가 건강이 나빠져 힘들어하고 있다는 소식에 가슴이 철렁 내려앉습니다.

그렇지 않아도 큰 키에 병마가 찾아들어 섭취하는 영양분을 다 빼앗아 가면 너무 가냘파 보이진 않을까요. 쓰러지는 듯하다가도 늘 다시 일어나는 갈대처럼 다시 일어나는 동생 영주이기를 빌고 또 빕니다.       

 

치료를 마치고 일상으로 복귀하는 ‘칼리 앨리슨’ 양의 기사가 오늘(2013년 11월 12일) 자 토론토 스타에 실렸습니다. 칼리 앨리슨 양이 던지는 한마디가 눈길을 끕니다.

“가진 모든 것에 감사하고 주위에 있는 사람들에게 감사할 필요가 있습니다.”

사경을 헤매다 일상으로 돌아가는 18세 소녀의 이야기라 더욱 절실합니다.

 

 <Toronto teen Carley Allison back on the ice after cancer battle; The 18-year-old singer-athlete returned to competition as a figure skater Saturday, just two weeks after finishing radiation.>

Clad in a sparkling blue dress, Carley Allison glided across the ice, her smooth strides punctuated by pirouettes, sharp leaps and assured landings.

Two weeks out of radiation therapy, the north Toronto teen clearly wasn’t the cancer patient any more. She was a competitor, determined and graceful in a junior women’s figure skating contest at the Thornhill Community Centre on Saturday night.

For Allison and her family, it was a big step in her welcome return to normal life.

“She has to be happy with that,” said her mother, May, beaming from the bleachers as her 18-year-old daughter finished her routine. “I want to cry.”

Eight months ago, Allison’s life as an athlete, singer and Grade 12 student was interrupted when she was diagnosed with clear-cell sarcoma. Doctors discovered a tumour in her throat, an exceedingly rare position for this type of cancer, nestled against a nerve of her vocal cords and dangerously constricting her windpipe.

The Star picked up Allison’s story in March, when she posted a video on YouTube of her rendition of one Direction’s “More Than This,” which she sang while breathing through the hole in her throat that was made during an emergency tracheotomy.

The performance grabbed the attention of thousands, and Allison used the publicity to raise funds for Princess Margaret Hospital, blogging about her experiences and posting new music videos every few weeks.

After months of treatment — chemotherapy, surgery to remove the tumour, radiation — Allison’s cancer is in remission. Now she’s picking up where she left off before the diagnosis, focusing her energy on her two passions: figure skating and singing.

“I kind of started to feel I was back to myself,” Allison said, moments after she stepped off the ice Saturday night, when she competed in front of her cheering family.

“Everyone is so supportive, and I kind of needed everybody behind me,” she said. “My mom said to me, ‘You made your goal when you got here today.’”

Somewhat amazingly, Allison started training on the ice again in September — while still undergoing radiation treatment. Her long-time coach, former Olympian Shin Amano, described how Allison would light up when she re-familiarized herself with her favourite skating moves. “I could see her face shining,” he said.

Despite gruelling chemotherapy in the spring — which caused the high schooler to lose all her hair, even her eyelashes — Allison managed to graduate with her friends on time. She sang at her grad ceremony, and participated in a 5-km run for charity just days before surgery in July. She even got a Twitter shout-out from pop star Selena Gomez.

“So much has gone on,” Allison said. “It all feels like it went by so fast.”

To help rebuild her voice, which is still hoarse from her summer surgery, Allison said she’s taking speech therapy, and hopes the graininess will clear up in sixth months to a year.

In the meantime, she’s applying her musical talent to piano and guitar, aiming to improve her instrumental technique while her voice is sidelined.

“My whole life changed, and it wasn’t just my life. It was everyone around me,” Allison said, coughing lightly. “I kind of live more in the moment now, because things can change, just like that ... You need to appreciate everything you have, and everyone around you.”

<By: Alex Ballingall, TORONTO STAR Published on Tue Nov 12 2013 Page GTA 1 & 2>