Rugby player gets support on and off the field from teammates during mother’s cancer battle
- Valley prop Sonia Chandiramani lost her mother to cancer last year, and says her teammates showed her the true meaning of sport
Sonia Chandiramani knows the second she became a Societe Generale Valley Black Ladies rugby player right down to the core of her being.
Last summer her mother Soni passed away after a lengthy, hard-fought battle with cancer at the age of 53. A huge number of her teammates showed up to her mother’s funeral out of the blue to show their support. Chandiramani had taken the season off to deal with her mother’s illness and a demanding job, but her fellow players hadn’t forgotten about her.
Chandiramani, who played on Saturday for Valley at loose head prop, said it was unexpected to have that many teammates turn up to honour her mother, and she was blown away by it.
“That was it, I was sold,” she said of the touching moment. “The seniors on the team, some of them were pregnant, and really busy and they all took the time to come out. For me, that is when it was completely official for me.”
Chandiramani, 25, said the support from her teammates during some of her darkest moments personifies what it means to be a part of a real team. Her mother’s battle with cancer contained a few relapses and she said throughout it all she always felt like her family away from her family had her back.