56-year-old Trevor Walker passed away only 16 days after he was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer.
After suffering from a cough cough for two months, he visited his GP who dismissed his symptoms as a chest infection.
“At the time, there were so many people all over Plymouth and the country with a cough,” his wife, 50-year-old Mandia Walker said. “There had been something going round.”
After a few weeks, Mr. Walker couldn’t go to work and he struggled to walk further than 500 meters.
When his wife noticed how skinny he looked when he came out of the bathroom, she convinced him to go to a hospital.
“’It was only then, when I saw him coming out the shower and I looked at the back of him that I suddenly realised how much weight he had lost,” Mrs. Walker expressed.
“He kept saying he hadn’t but I told him, ‘This isn’t right, you’ve lost too much weight’.”
Biopsies and blood tests revealed that Mr. Walker had bowel cancer that had already spread to his lungs. Unfortunately, his condition was already too severe for treatment.
“The first time Trevor and I heard the words bowel cancer from the doctors, we were stunned,’ Mrs Walker said.
“We cried into each other’s arms and said, “We’ll fight this, we’ll get through it, it will be fine”.
“He had no symptoms. He had regular bowel movements, there wasn’t any blood. All he had was this cough that everyone seemed to have.
“But it turned out the fluid on his lungs was secondary cancer because the bowel cancer had spread so far and so fast. It was devastating.”
He spent his final days in hospital and passed away surrounded by his family. His heartbreaking last words were “I love you all.”
Speaking about her husband’s fight against cancer, Mrs. Walker said: “From the day he was diagnosed to the day he died, was just 16 days.
“It was really traumatic seeing him deteriorate so rapidly. He lost so much weight, he was all skin and bones. He went from having no symptoms whatsoever just this cough that everyone put down to a chest infection.
“I was there and our three children were all there with him when he went. His very last words were, “I love you all”.
“I lost my soul mate after 32 beautiful years together. I hold onto all the memories we had together, even those 16 days.”
Mr. Walker passed away surrounded by his daughter and sons. His funeral was attended by local football referees and many people came to celebrate his life.
“Trevor was one of those people – everybody knew him and everybody loved him,” Mrs Walker added.
The signs and symptoms of bowel cancer include blood in stools, bleeding from the bottom, unexplained weight loss, changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain and unexplained tiredness.
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