Months after she started experiencing frequent blackouts Allyson Mc Dowell was faced with a grim diagnosis; she had cancer of the lung.
This was news that put an end to her plans of taking up a fulltime teaching job at a college and killed her dreams of starting her own clothing pattern making business. But at 67 and “living on borrowed time,” as she puts it, Mc Dowell has not allowed the disease, which has resulted in one of her lungs being removed, to stop her from enjoying life as she will live “life to the fullest” until her end comes. While that could be today, tomorrow or even another ten years (she is optimistic), she has no intention of sitting at home and waiting for her time. Instead she has been travelling and with the help of others has started a non-profit organisation which seeks to help the disadvantaged to access key services in the US.
Mc Dowell was a teenage mother and later experienced years of domestic violence. She has lived a difficult life, but today she is comfortable where she is and happy that she fulfilled her lifelong dream of being a teacher.
