The family of an NHS healthcare assistant diagnosed with terminal cancer are rallying to raise funds so she can fulfil her last wish – to marry her partner of 21 years. Clair Honeywood, 45, is battling stage three pancreatic cancer, with a ‘C-shaped’ tumour wrapped around a major artery, making it inoperable.
Doctors have given the mother-of-two a five per cent chance of success with chemotherapy, but if unsuccessful, she has been given a prognosis of 17 months. Despite her challenging circumstances, the A&E healthcare assistant from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, is determined to fight and has begun chemotherapy.
Her ultimate wish is to marry her long-term partner, Danny Burch, 40. Friends and family are now fundraising to make this dream a reality.
Upon receiving her diagnosis, Clair described the prospect of a wedding as a ‘dream come true’. “You just feel like your whole world ended – you just think about your kids,” she said.
“My partner Danny had been talking about getting married and my friend offered her hand to do the wedding in a farm which reminds me of my dad’s home in the country side. I feel like I have been given the gift of time. I am spending more time with my boys – I have to look at the positives”, reports Nottinghamshire Live.
“We have been together for 21 years and it has been crazy that it took us this long to get married. He keeps looking at me and saying ‘I can’t wait for you to be my wife’.”
Clair, an A&E worker, initially dismissed her stomach pain as a symptom of her IBS. However, after two weeks of agony, she sought help at her local hospital where an anomaly was detected in her pancreas.
Her symptoms escalated and she began to appear jaundiced. Weeks after her initial hospital visit, Clair received a devastating diagnosis.
“They didn’t want to give me my diagnosis because I was alone,” she shared. “My poor consultant didn’t want to tell me but I begged him to tell me.”
She was then informed that she had pancreatic cancer. Although the cancer hadn’t spread, it was inoperable. “They then told me I had pancreatic cancer. The doctors told me that the cancer had not spread – but then they said it was not operable. It was another blow – I didn’t know what was going on. The doctors said to just go home and make memories,” she recalled.
Despite her diagnosis, Clair remains optimistic, drawing strength from her two children. “I am only 45 and you don’t expect to go through this at this age. There is still hope but at the moment I am just focusing on the three months in chemotherapy,” she said.
She added: “Life is for living – the body can’t survive without the mind so I have to be positive. Working in the NHS you see traumatic things and you push it aside – I don’t know if it is a coping mechanism.”
Despite the chemotherapy potentially shrinking the tumour, surgery remains a high-risk option due to its location around the main artery. Clair explained: “The oncologist said six months worth of chemo and gave me 17 months to live. It is a C-shaped tumour wrapped around the artery. It is not normal for someone my age to get this cancer – it is a silent cancer too it is really tricky.
“When you don’t know what’s happening your mind just goes to some dark places.” However, Clair’s focus has shifted to her upcoming wedding, which her friend is planning for the end of July, after her chemotherapy is completed.
Clair envisions a relaxed, nature-filled celebration surrounded by loved ones. “It is going to be such a perfect day to get together with all of my friends and family that you don’t get with when you are working,” she said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up by Clair’s friend to help fund the wedding, and donations can be made at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/clair-honeywood.