Its hard to find words to describe our wonderful dad/grandad/husband, but I think the general agreement was ‘a legend’. Dad would do anything for anyone of his friends or family and had a unique quality of making anyone he spoke to feel truly special.

Dad was a lifelong organ donor, so was also prepared to pass on the gift of life to strangers should he have needed to. We know he would have been saddened that his illness meant that this wasnt possible, so as a family we are finding other ways to try and help others through his death.

As a family we focus on the amazing memories we have of dad and try not to focus on his death, but for the purposes of raising funds its important to talk about it. So here goes....

Dad died of acute, necrotising, pancreatitis. Don‘t know what that is? Neither did we! turns out it is pretty brutal and we have unfortunately become pseudo-specialists in the topic.

Dad became ill just after Easter 2019, was diagnosed and spent a week in hospital and was then discharged home. Just after fathers day in June dad had another attack, returned to hospital and died within 9 days.

The lack of research into pancreatitis means that treatments on offer are, at best, limited and the treating doctors try their best but struggle to know what to do when someone has an atypical presentation (meaning that the cause wasnt triggered by gallstones or alcohol addiction). Dad fell through this gap and it turns out he isn’t alone; one of the acute doctors told us something like 90% of patients with atypical presentation who go to intensive care die - unbelievably shocking.

Because of the lack of knowledge, research, treatments, discussion around pancreatic illnesses there is no support services available to families trying to support their loved ones. After dads death we happened upon a charity called Guts UK. Their mission statement is as follows:

This charity was set up to change something – to increase the levels of research into diseases of the gut, liver and pancreas so no one suffers in silence or alone.

Since 1971 we have funded almost 300 projects and invested £15 million pounds into medical research that leads to better diagnoses and treatments for the millions of people who, like us, don’t have the luxury of taking our guts for granted.

Guts UK’s vision is of a world where digestive disorders are better understood, better treated and everyone who lives with one gets the support they need.

Our mission as Guts UK is to provide expert information, raise public awareness of digestive health and transform the landscape for research into our digestive system to help people affected by diseases of the gut, liver and pancreas.

This fundraising page has one aim - to raise as much money as is feasibly possible, through as many hair brained activities we can think of, to ensure that future families can access better treatments and support should they be facing the challenges of a pancreatic illness.

thanks xx