How it all started.... (by Dom’s wife Jo)

Dom Bisson was born in Jersey in 1981 and has lived here all his life. He grew up in the West of the island with one younger brother, making Quennevais and the beaches their playground. Dom has always been very active, with adrenalin sports being at his core since has was young. In the early days, they were always on their BMX bikes and Dom then took up surfing, mountain biking, trial bike riding, play with remote control cars, drift-triking and basically doing anything that got his adrenaline going! He did a a bungee jump from the highest bridge in the world, whilst on holiday in South Africa so it was only natural to do a sky-dive for his 30th!

We met each other in South Africa whilst he was there for his 21st visiting family and after 3 weeks of knowing each other, we knew we were meant to be together; infact I actually joked with his cousin I was going to marry him one day! I moved to Jersey a few months later, we were married in 2006 and in 2007 we started our family with the arrival of our lovely daughter Talitha (now 11) and subsequently added two fantastic sons to the Bisson clan, our awesome Judah who is now 9 and little Eli who is now 6.

However in May 2014, Dom had a rogue mole checked at the Donna Annand clinic here in Jersey, which was referred and confirmed to be malignant melanoma. It was a shock, but surgery was scheduled and the mole and surrounding tissue removed and the pathology results reassured us there was no cancer in the surrounding tissue, so naturally we celebrated and then rejoiced that the ordeal was over almost as quickly as it had begun. We carried on with life, enjoying our children and we even started the process to emigrate to Australia to join family members already living there and to hope to adopt a lifestyle that gave us more family time.

Dom is a locally qualified, self-employed decorator by trade and worked as ‘Dom the Decorator’ for about 10 years, but when our eldest Talitha was diagnosed and treated, and mercifully cured from leukaemia, Dom suffered with PTSD and so he decided to close the business to alleviate as much stress as possible and have more time at home with the kids. He later went to work for Jersey Hospital in their maintenance department and one of the benefits of moving to being employed was that it gave us more financial stability. When Dom started to suffer from severe migraines and cluster headaches from August 2017, it didn‘t really cross our minds that his melanoma ordeal was about to get much worse, but after many trips to the doctor and a very panicked trip to A&E one morning, the scans came back to confirm he had a large mass on his brain, which was more than likely related to the melanoma from 3 years previously. Further scans showed that there were numerous lesions in his brain and lungs; and the disease was also found in his lymph glands and abdomen. Life was sent into a tail spin to say the least as the tests all confirmed Stage 4 Melanoma.

Since Dom’s diagnosis last Autumn, he has undergone various treatment regimes; he has suffered seizures, partial paralysis, severe colitis and has also spent a lot of time in hospital away from us all, overcoming different surgeries to remove 2 life-threatening brain tumours in London and is still currently fighting for his life. Melanoma is known for its unpredictable and very aggressive nature as a cancer and the cocktail of prescription drugs Dom is taking has played havoc with his body and mind. Because of this, his prognosis has never really been the most promising but we are people of Faith and believe in a God that can and does heal miraculously, and we know that if and when He doesn’t, He gives us the strength to overcome these challenges in our life.

We just want to spend however much time we have left together, whether it’s weeks, months or years, making memories and enjoying each other’s company with our children, without the strain of financial worries ontop of everything else. Our plans to emigrate have been stopped in their tracks but that doesn’t mean WE are stopped in our tracks. We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this year and will keep desperately fighting and hoping and praying and living as long as we are alive. Sadly due to the nature of his disease and the amount of time he has been sick and unable to work, Dom has just been declared as medically retired by an independent health panel so our future finances are more than a little unsure at the moment and any help we are given will be a blessing.