IZZY
Izzy began mentoring sessions when her maternal grandfather was terminally ill with cancer and her paternal grandmother had been diagnosed with dementia. Her school was concerned that Izzy had begun being absent from school and that she was tearful and anxious when she was at school. Izzy had told her teachers that she needed somebody to talk to about all that was going on.
Reluctant to talk about her grandfather much for the first weeks, Izzy then gradually started sharing her distress regarding his illness and treatment. A part of each session was given to allow her to cry and let out the build-up of her emotion, with little talk.
The mentoring sessions also gave space for Izzy to speak about and remember who her grandmother is as a person and making a memory book together with her nan really helped with this process. Focusing on the happy times that she still enjoys with her nan, and the parts of her relationship with her nan that haven’t changed helped alleviate Izzy’s worries and she said she could worry about those things “whenever they happen.”
Towards the end of her mentoring sessions Izzy suddenly said that she “accepted” her Grandad was going to die and she wanted to make the most of the time she had with him. Izzy then used her sessions to focus on all the things she had enjoyed with her Grandad, as she had done about her nan. She took lots of photos over the Christmas holiday and decorated a treasure box to keep these in.
From the fifth of her 18 sessions of weekly mentoring, Izzy no longer had days off school.
*Names have been changed and models have been used to protect the identity of young people.