Debbie's Fund

Mum looked great, she had just started getting fit again, she always wanted to run a 5k for charity and had just completed her first mile in training. I remember her phoning me, out of breath, excited saying "I did it, I just ran a mile, no stopping."

She was determined to keep her life the same even in the face of such adversity. Her strength and determination was incredible and are defining marks of her amazing character.

Mum went through 18 months of gruelling chemotherapy and despite knowing how aggressive her cancer was she was positive she was going to beat it. She said "someone's got to beat this and why can't that be me?" She set a strong sense of security for us all from the day she was diagnosed. She really had us all believe she wasn't going anywhere.

Since her diagnosis mum talked a lot about just wanting us all to be happy. Within that very busy 18 months she saw my brother get engaged, my younger brother buy his first home, I myself get engaged and my sister buy a new house. It was as if she had waved a big magic wand.

Mum was always desperate for grandchildren. Her first born was Darcey and from the day she arrived they went everywhere and did everything together. In the year leading up to her diagnoses mum got the lovely news that both my sister and I were expecting at the same time. She was of course elated and said "I had a feeling something good was coming". Both boys arrived in the same week just before my mum's diagnosis and as she held my son in her arms the day he was born she said "Well I'm definitely not going anywhere now".

In June, just over three month before my mum passed she went into the room with the Doctor on her own due to Covid restrictions whilst dad waited outside. It was then she was told that her treatment had stopped working and the tuma was growing again.

She made the heroic decision there and then not to tell her family, not to put us through the unimaginable pain and suffering, she, herself was about to take on. My dad remembers her being very quiet on their journey home that day but simply put it down to a long day at the hospital and tiredness from treatment.

On Fri Oct 16th we sadly lost our mum and she left us as she wanted to, peacefully, at home, with her family around her. Words truly can't describe the hole that she has left in all our hearts. We take great comfort from the incredible legacy she has left in the minds of all that knew and loved her. We laugh at funny stories and talk of our own memories that we share and remember fondly as a family. Mum, your spirit will live on in all of us forever. We love you.

In mums’s honour we want to help many more people and families like ours, having to live with this awful disease. We want to take our mum's enthusiasm for life, and love of helping others and continue to raise money and support such a great cause.