Jessica - 14 years old

When he got home we helped him with everything and he was grateful. I always told him I loved him and he said it back, he was the best dad ever.

It was January 21st and i saw my sister running away from my house crying and i didn't know what was wrong so i went home and my mum sat me down and told me that my dad had cancer. I burst into tears i had to be quiet because my brother was upstairs and i wasn't allowed to tell him. I struggled to get through school but i had my friends to help me through it, i also had my teachers there for me. On April 15th my mums birthday, my dad got rushed into hospital and it was also the day we was moving house we went to see him at night so he wasn't on his own.

He had a tumor in his gullet, he had the operation to remove it and it was a success. I was jumping for joy and so was everybody else. He got back to his old self energetic and sporty.

But 3 years later he got diagnosed again but this time it was incurable. It was harder this time than it was the first time, he was in and out of hospital having radiotherapy. He was in hospital for 7 week going on 8 because he had a bad turn. I went to see him nearly every day and i told him how everything was and he talked to me back. When he got home we helped him with everything and he was grateful, i always told him i loved him and he said it back, he was the best dad ever.

Then all of a sudden he got rushed in to resuscitation because he was struggling breathing so my mum phoned an ambulance and they rushed him to hospital. My sister came into my school and got me and said 'its dad, he might not make it' those words hurt me so much she gave me the choice either to go and see him or go to my Nan and grandad's. I chose to go and see him. When i got there i burst into tears because he had tubes all over him and it looked like he wasn't going to make it but he became stable during the night so they moved him to a ward where i was with him all day every day. The doctors gave him 24 hours but my dad fought through those hours and lived another week.

On July 28th my mum came home woke me up and told me to come downstairs. I knew something was wrong because my mum was crying. We was all downstairs and my mum said 'its your dad he has died'. I didn't believe her at first and then i burst out crying.

Page updated 1 September 2014