UWI grad dedicates degree to sick mom

In 2012, 11-year-old Tariq Kelly received what he deems the most devastating news of his life - his beloved mother was diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer.

Kelly's life was turned upside down, but despite the horrific news, he was determined to make his mother proud. Kelly, who is now 21, graduated last Friday from The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona with a Bachelor's of Science degree with upper second-class honours. He majored in computer science and minored in social psychology.

He told THE STAR that during his high-school years, his greatest struggle was trying to focus on school while watching his mother fight for her life.

"Coming home from school every evening was rough, 'cause after a lot of the surgeries, she was very sick or couldn't move or anything. She just bandage up," Kelly said. He added that during the time of his mother's diagnosis, his parents also separated and started getting a divorce. This made his decision to pursue a tertiary education at The UWI's Mona campus a tough one, because he had to leave his mother in Mandeville, Manchester, with his younger sister.

"It hit me the worst before university, like coming to university because ... from [age] 11 to about 18 I had been, 'the man of the house', and a lot of the times all that would run through my mind was, 'Suh who is going to do all the lifting and all of that stuff?'" Kelly said.

Despite his worries, Kelly said he had no other choice but to keep pushing, because he had to make his mother proud after all of her many sacrifices.

"It was basically the least I could do," Kelly said. He expressed gratitude to both his parents for helping him accomplish his dreams of acquiring a degree, and enabling him to pursue a career in user interface design.

His mother, Patrice Blagrove Kelly, said that her cancer is currently in remission, and that her son was one of her greatest sources of strength.

"He would just be there holding my hand saying, 'Mommy, don't cry, mommy, don't cry.' And I think I would have given up if I didn't have them to live for," said Blagrove Kelly, who also has a 16-year-old daughter. She admitted that it was painful to see how the disease has affected her son.

"Sometimes thinking about it, what I allowed my child to go through, it was hard because he didn't ask to be here, and it made his life so hard," Blagrove Kelly said tearfully. Still, she added that her son made it easy for her to keep working as an ophthalmic medical assistant, despite the disease's impact on her body and mind.

"It was easy because of who Tariq is. I was able to just be motivated to work because of who they (her children) were and the push that I see them pushing," Blagrove Kelly said. "He was achieving. He never yet made me feel as if my money was wasted, because everything that he was doing, he was doing it to the best of his ability."

She also told THE STAR that she could not allow the disease to take over her life, because she had to be strong for her children and prepare them for the worst.

"I took on an attitude of sorting them out. I needed to make sure that these children achieved, and I let them know that the only thing I might have to give to them is an education. So I told them, go to school and focus, because you don't know how long you will have your mother around," Blagrove Kelly said.

Kelly added that in the midst of deciding to pursue a tertiary education, his mother never allowed him to quit and stay home to take care of her.

"She wouldn't even let me, even if I tried. One thing she always tell me is, 'I gave you an education and you have to take it from there.' It would have probably hurt her more, me not going [to university]," Kelly said.