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Don’t forget me: The last words of a mother whose cancer blog was followed by thousands

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A mother of two young children who chronicled her fight against breast cancer in a heart-breaking blog died this week, shortly after writing what she knew was her last post .

Thousands followed lawyer Rosie Choueka, 38, as she wrote candidly of her hopes and fears and, finally, her despair as the disease took hold. She described her love for her children Natalie and Joseph and her wish not to leave them.

Last Thursday, under the headline “My Final Post”, she wrote of how she had spent 10 days in hospital “declining swiftly” and being deluged with messages from well-wishers.

She ended with the words: “This blog was just my story of what I have been going through over the past almost year.

Please remember that. Everyone’s journey is different, everyone’s journey is unique. Please remember me and my family.

Thank you for reading. Rosie.”

She died on Tuesday morning in the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead surrounded by her husband, Elliot, and family.

Her husband announced her death on the blog, saying: “She was a great woman, mother, daughter, wife but above all the best friend I ever had. Rosie, we will all miss you so much.”

He added: “Not now, but at an appropriate time I will return to this blog to try to convey some of my thoughts about Rosie and her desire to establish a charity in her memory.”

Mrs Choueka, from north-west London, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. Despite intensive chemotherapy she discovered a new lump and doctors told her the disease spread to her liver.

In her blog she detailed how her hopes of a recovery had been dashed, even personalising the disease by naming it Ghengis.
In one post, she described giving her daughter Natalie, six, a goodnight hug. “She is one of the three reasons I’m fighting Genghis. I adore her. I could drink in her smell all night,” she said. “She is beautiful and she is mine. Love love love love love.”

Mrs Choueka said she blogged in the hope that recording her fight would show “others in a similar position they aren’t alone and give my kids something to make them proud of me and to help them realise that some good can come from this horrid situation”.

She was buried at Bushey Cemetery on Tuesday. In a eulogy, her Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, of Finchley Synagogue, said: “Rosie was a brilliant lawyer of the Moses variety.

“She rejoiced in what she could give. She gave and inspired without even trying. She had humility in the face of adversity which has touched each one of us and will live with us for all time.”

Her parents described her as a young girl with “strong will and determination and an ability to take charge.”
Mrs Choueka shared her blog with thousands of users who became her “online family.”

One follower, Suzie Tash, 38, said: “I’ve had cancer myself. We all wanted a happy ending for her and it is so tragic that it has ended how it has.

“We all formed a relationship with her online, just through reading following and hoping that she pulled through.
“She had the best way with words and was so frank about her treatment and experience.

“She has brought so many Jewish women online together.”

A Just Giving page has been set up for the hospice in Hampstead where she spent her final days.

Before she passed away her cousin, Marcie Shaoul, took part in Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life in her name.

She said: “Rosie is my cousin. She’s also my friend. She’s also my confidante and was a massive source of strength to me during my dark years.

“Nobody who has cancer should fight alone. I am not a scientist. I am not a doctor. But I have legs. And I can run.

“I’m going to run fast to raise as much money as I possibly can to help Rosie fight her Genghis.”

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