Great-Grandma Betty Inspires Instagram as She Battles a Terminal Cancer Diagnosis
Zach Belden’s 80-year-old great-grandmother Betty was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Knowing that she would have to endure unimaginable hardship, both physical and emotional, Belden came up with an idea that would help keep her spirits high and make the remainder of her time on this planet as joyous as possible.
His solution turned out to be Instagram.
Being a child of the Internet and social media, Zach came up with the idea of creating an Instagram account where him and his grandmother would share photos and videos of Betty’s daily life. “He wanted to give her something that would make her happy and fight until there was no fight left,” his mother Hope explained in an interview with TODAY.
It originally started with “Selfie Sunday” photos, but has since grown into an almost daily endeavor. With just under 300,000 followers, the family tells TODAY that, “it gives her something to look forward to every day. She still asks every morning, ‘How many more friends do I have today?'”
And with each new post, even more support, care, love and prayers are sent her way as the hundreds of thousands of people encourage her to keep on keeping on.
As painful as going through diagnoses and treatments can be (and I speak from personal experience) it’s almost equally if not more painful for the loved ones of the diagnosed to deal with the unavoidable feelings of helplessness. This Instagram account doesn’t just keep Betty’s hopes up and her spirit positive, it helps her family have something to look forward to when loss is all but inevitable.
As you can see from some of the embedded videos and pictures they’ve shared, Betty seems to be quite the enthusiastic character despite the hardships she’s facing, and we wish her all the best.
If you’d like to go give Betty and her family a follow, check out more of her dance moves, or send her and her family a word of encouragement, head on over to her Instagram account.
(via TODAY via Imaging Resource)
