• Question: How did u feel when u were told u were going to die?

    Asked by anon-191454 to Stephen Hawking on 27 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Stephen Hawking

      Stephen Hawking answered on 27 Nov 2018:

      It’s a personal question, so I’m more comfortable answering this as Ryan (myself) instead of being Stephen if that’s okay.

      At first Stephen became very depressed. Being told ‘you don’t have much time to live’ left him despondent and inconsolable. Stephen described two key moments during the first few months after his diagnosis that helped him recover. The first was while he was still in hospital. He shared a room with a young man suffering with Leukaemia; Hawking felt his suffering was more tolerable relative to his poor roommate’s. The second moment was a dream Stephen had, in it he was executed. Upon waking from his nightmare, Stephen felt he still had so much to live for.

      Prior to his diagnosis, Stephen didn’t have much direction in his life. After this, he realised what it was he wanted and poured more effort into his research and career. With the uncertainty in his life he wanted to make sure he got his PhD. From there, became one of the best theorists in the world!

      Great Question

Comments

  • Photo: Rosalind Franklin

    Rosalind Franklin commented on :

    I died at the age of 37, of ovarian cancer. I’m pretty sure I felt cheated: I’d just got my new research group going at Birkbeck, we were doing really good work on the structure of viruses, it just wasn’t fair! I think you can see this from the fact that the group published 13 papers in the two years between my diagnosis and my death: we were working as hard as we could to make the most of whatever time I had left.