It is with a heavy heart that I let you know that my Dad passed away due to complications of terminal cancer this morning at 6:47am.

Many of you reading this note, will not have known he had cancer or was sick.

His initial cancer was in the Prostrate, and Radiation “cured” that one. However, about 6 months later, he had trouble swallowing, and a gastroscopy found cancer in his esophagus as it enters his stomach. That cancer was treated with radiation and chemo ……. he got very sick, but started to recover slowly. He started to go back downhill again around Christmas, and they did some more blood tests and a bone scan. The cancer markers had gone up, and they thought the cancer MAY have spread to his bones.

During January and February, he was in and out of hospital, on saline drips as he could not keep food or water down. On the 25th February, my Mum took him to Emergency in the morning, and they admitted him to Palliative Care, and “treated” his pain with morphine. They subsequently discovered that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes and his liver, and they were pretty confident that it had finally spread to his bones. The morphine doses steadily increased, as the pain was getting worse and worse … for the last week, he was not able to talk to us, but he knew we were there.
This morning when the hospital called us and told us to come as soon as possible as he was deteriorating, we got there to find him awake, and waiting for us to say goodbye - with his eyes. He still could not talk to us ..... and we understood, and held him until he passed on.

In a good way, I am glad he has passed away, and no longer has pain. But in a selfish way, I am not, and wish he would have been here forever.

I love you and will miss you so much Dad.
YOUR daughter
Tumsch (his name for ME)