Sue Harte is gearing up for the London Marathon subsequent month when she’s going to run in reminiscence of her late husband, Damien, who tragically handed away from sarcoma – a uncommon type of most cancers.
Sue, a 64-year-old retired social employee, who began her coaching at Clapham Frequent, close to the place she lives, is elevating funds for Sarcoma UK within the April 27 run.
Sue was devastated when “the love of her life”, her husband for 40 years, died from sarcoma. Sarcomas are so uncommon they account for lower than one per cent of all most cancers diagnoses.
The primary signal that one thing was mistaken with Damien’s well being got here in Could 2018 when the couple have been visiting Marrakesh in Morocco. Having climbed Mount Toubkal, they celebrated after their descent with champagne. Damien then complained of a ache in his aspect, which on the time appeared like a pulled muscle.
However the ache continued and a lump on Damien’s aspect continued to develop.
At Damien’s request, surgeons operated in October 2018, the place a tumour was recognized as a grade 3 myxofibrosarcoma, a sort of sentimental tissue sarcoma most cancers. There are solely 178 circumstances in England annually.
Following the surgical procedure, Damien had profitable radiotherapy just for the most cancers to return precisely one yr later in 2019. In November 2019, the most cancers unfold to Damien’s lungs.
Regardless of this, Damien and Sue remained lively and so they have been in a position to hike in Oman in February 2020, regardless of Damien having seven tumours in his lungs.
After the journey, Damien went into hospital for therapy and as a consequence of Covid restrictions, needed to spend 39 days in hospital by himself.
By June 2020, he was unable to stroll as a consequence of tumours on his backbone. He wanted two operations – given the situation of the tumours, he was warned the surgical procedure might depart him paralysed.
He had extra radiotherapy and this time Sue slept on the ground of his hospital room for 3 weeks to maintain Damien firm. In August 2020, he was informed that it was unlikely he would be capable of regain the usage of his legs, and he now had pneumonia.
He died on September 21, 2020 aged 64. In addition to Sue, he left a son, Conor, and daughter, Maeve. Maeve has since had a son Fabian whose center identify is Damo (Damien’s nickname).
Sue stated: “Had he been recognized earlier, he might need lived longer.” She added: “He had nice joie de vivre, he confronted his most cancers journey with braveness, bravery and humour and selflessness.”
The household have been initially from Portlaoise in Eire and moved to England in 1983.
A chief monetary officer, Damien helped launch the TV station Channel 5 and had labored in industries together with the wind power and logistics sectors. He was enthusiastic about meals poverty and was a trustee of meals charity FareShare.
She stated: “I’m now Damien’s age when he died and he all the time needed to run a marathon, I’m not a runner however in a match of the vapours one night I made a decision to use to run on the Sarcoma UK workforce and so they accepted me.”
Sarcoma UK’s director of analysis, Dr Sorrel Bickley, stated: “We’re extremely grateful to Sue for taking over this problem in reminiscence of Damien. Our researchers are engaged on higher methods to identify sarcoma earlier, perceive why therapies typically cease working and develop new therapies that would save lives.
“Sue’s fundraising will assist us proceed this very important analysis and hopefully stop different households from experiencing the heartbreak that she and her household have endured.”
To donate to Sue, go to https://www.justgiving.com/web page/sue-harte?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
Pictured high: Sue and Damien mountain climbing in Oman (Image: Sarcoma UK)
