Story
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“Don’t buy me anything for Christmas” dad said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t like us to “waste our money on him when he probably wouldn’t be around long enough to enjoy it”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer five years before and after a couple of painful and unsuccessful operations, plus radiation treatment and chemotherapy, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the doctors had finally told us there was nothing more they could do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the last three years my dad had been slowly dying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Watching him painfully fighting this thing had taken its toll on the rest of the family, especially my mum, who had been his main carer throughout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It’s hard enough watching someone you love die but I felt as though I was also watching my mum die with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wouldn’t admit she wasn’t coping but I knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She became frail but her pride wouldn’t let her ask for help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end I asked for help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nurses were fantastic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Respite care was organised immediately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone was there listening to my mum, and they were still there for her right up to the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through our grief, I don’t think we ever properly thanked those nurses for what they did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’re amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Macmillan Cancer Support provides those nurses and many other kinds of support to people with cancer and to the families of people with cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are funded by the generosity of the public without which they could not continue to provide this valuable support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please help me to say a big thank you to them by supporting me in my challenge to climb Kilimanjaro to raise funds to help more people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pray you never need their support but it would be nice to know that if someone you knew ever needed them, they would be there.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">I did buy my dad a Christmas present that year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Ken Dodd DVD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I told dad it only lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes he laughed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he did enjoy it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">My dad died eight months later.</span></p>
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