(Editor’s note: This Mother’s Day column was submitted by 12-time PGA Tour winner, former World No. 1 and 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day.)
My mother, Dening Day, was my best friend since childhood. Like many mothers, she made countless sacrifices to help me achieve my dreams. Whenever things felt impossible, she was there telling me to keep going. When Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, I knew that one day I would have the incredibly difficult task of spending Mother’s Day without her.
That’s going to be this year. In early March, we lost my mother to the disease, and while my family and I feel her absence with heavy hearts today, we are doing our best to honor her by celebrating the unwavering strength that defined her life and touched so many others. Of course, this isn’t easy, but Mum was the kind of person who could always find the silver lining, knowing that life was a gift even in her most challenging moments.
When Mum was diagnosed with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, it was a devastating blow to our family. She remained optimistic and held on to hope while the rest of us grappled with the thought of a future without her. As usual, Mum was right.
We explored Mum’s options with her doctors and learned that biomarker testing could help complete her diagnosis by providing her doctors with genetic information about her tumor and help determine targeted treatment options for her specific type of lung cancer.
Mum’s perseverance and determination taught us an important lesson: when someone you love learns that they may only have limited time to live, every single day you have with them, and every opportunity to fight the illness, becomes a gift and something you experience together.
We took Mum’s treatment journey together as a family. She moved in with my wife, Ellie, and me. Instead of my mother taking care of me as she had my entire life, my wife and I became her caregivers. The role of caregiver was not always easy, but I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend more time with her. Ellie stepped up to help support Mum and me in ways I could not have anticipated, becoming the emotional rock of our family.
When she was first diagnosed, I was so angry that lung cancer threatened to take my mum from us early. Today, I am grateful for the additional memories we’ve built throughout her lung cancer journey. From weeknight dinners, painting classes and vacations to my mum being there for those priceless moments during holidays with our children, her diagnosis helped us realize that our time as a family should never be taken for granted.
While this Mother’s Day and those that follow it may not be easy, I will honor my mum, Dening Day, and her extraordinary ability to focus on the good and find opportunities to inspire others, even when she was struggling—that lesson is one that Ellie and I will make sure our children embrace, too.
To learn more about my mum’s story, click here.
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