Episode 953

Australian Air Date: 4th March 1992
UK Air Date: 21st October 1992
Writer: Ray Harding
Director: Chris Martin-Jones

Julia cracks under the pressure of her daughter’s illness. Simon feels his style is being cramped.

Extended Summary

Blake explains to Simon that Meg has leukaemia. Simon is very shocked.

Fisher talks to Meg and Julia. He says that the teachers need to know about her leukaemia. Meg does not like the idea.

Blake calls over and Meg goes with him. She needs to talk to him.

Meg and Blake are talking at the beach. He explains that he told Simon. Meg is pretty OK with that.

Meg decides she has to tell her friends that she has leukaemia and that she is dying so they don’t find out from someone else.

Sally, Fin and Sophie are nagging each other because they are having trouble organising while Pippa is away. Sally is cooking stew for Dag Dog.

Meg phones and Sophie answers. She says she has to speak to them and that it is important.

Blake and Meg are at the beach. He isn’t sure that it is the right thing to do to tell her friends about it. She says she has to do it.

Sophie, Fin and Sally come down to beach and are in a pretty happy mood. They joke around about what could be so important that she needed to speak to them straight away.

Meg explains that she moved to Summer Bay so she could live normally for a while. Sophie, Fin and Sally are puzzled. Meg explains she has leukaemia and that she does not have long to live.

Fin, Sophie and Sally are shocked and are very sad and they feel very bad for Meg.

Meg talks it over with them on at beach. She also explains that they can’t tell it to anyone as she wants to live as normally as possible.

Sophie asks how long she might have to live. Meg doesn’t know but it could be only a couple of months.

Sophie thinks Meg should quit school and have some fun. Meg says she enjoys going to school and being with her friends.

Sally cries and thinks the whole thing isn’t fair. Meg tells them she wants them to talk to her; she hugs Sally.

After a while, they talk more about it. Fin, Sally and Sophie have such a hard time accepting that Meg is dying.

Fin starts crying, as well as Meg. Meg tells them they have to understand that she is dying and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. Meg explains that they can’t help her if they don’t understand that. Everyone is very sad and Fin and Meg cry and hug each other.

Fisher comes over to the Stewarts and talks about Meg. Alf gives Fisher some scotch. Alf drinks some beer and they talk about the whole thing.

After a while Fisher’s son Alan who died comes up in their heads too. Fisher feels very bad about it.

Alf and Fisher are very worried how Blake will take Meg’s death. They are pretty sure he will take it badly.

Meg and Blake talk to Julia. Meg cannot tell her mother yet about her revealing her illness to her friends. She will tell her later.

Sophie and Fin are changing plans that they maybe can’t go bowling as it could be too hard for Meg. Sally thinks it is wrong since Meg wanted to live life as normal as possible.

Simon talks to Nick about Sophie. Simon feels a bit bad since he sort of loses out on girlfriends just because he hangs around Sophie and because that she is pregnant. Simon talks to Lou about it too and hoped that she could talk to Sophie about it. Lou suggests he talks it over with Sophie himself and be straight to her. He is worried about hurting Sophie’s feelings.

Sophie and Meg talk to Julia. They suggest they go see a movie instead of bowling since she is sick. Julia gets angry with Meg since she has told them about the leukaemia and that she knew nothing about it. Meg explains she was about to tell her tonight.

Ola Carlsson, 2000