My father, David Roberts, was the strongest person I’ve ever known. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in November 2012, just a few months after his oldest brother Bobby died from the same awful cancer aged 76. His mum also died of oesophageal cancer in 1971 age 61 years.
He wasn’t able to have the tumour removed due to previous circulation issues so started his chemotherapy & radiotherapy treatments on his 65th Birthday (5th December 2012). He took it like a champ and went in with a positive attitude and a smile on his face. Mr Harvard, his specialist in the Royal Glamorgan hospital said that people with his attitude usually do well.
We had him for almost 7 years after the original diagnosis
The treatment didn’t work as they’d hoped so he had to go in for surgery. He had the Ivor Lewis operation in October 2013 (where they take away a large amount of the oesophagus and bring stomach further up to connect them) in the Heath Hospital Cardiff, this was performed by Mr Harvard and Mr Lewis.
The operation went well and he was smiling and chatting in recovery afterwards.
Unfortunately due to his circulation issues the join became necrotic later that night so they had to bring his stomach back down, staple it shut and put in a feeding tube. Then he had a hole in his neck where the end of his oesophagus was with a colostomy bag that would catch anything he swallowed. He was on life support for almost 9 weeks and this was an extremely hard time for all the family. We were called in to say goodbye a few times but he was never one to give up without a fight. He came through it and the first thing he asked was how his dog Benji was!
Having the bag and feeding tube was quite hard for my dad to adjust to as he was a bit conscious of people seeing the bag but did however manage to keep his positive attitude.
Once he’d got his strength back and was doing well he went up to St Thomas in London to have another big operation in January 2015. Mr Gossage performed an operation (Supercharged Jejunal Interposition) where he would rebuild him a new oesophagus using his lower intestine. This meant my father could slowly start to eat again which was fantastic! He kept in touch regularly with London and visited them around 3 times per year to see the plastic surgeon and Mr Gossage to dilate the structure to ensure he could keep swallowing.
Our local GP would send students to the house to see his notes and examine him then ask him questions about his experience and what it was like living with his new anatomy.
The doctors, nurses, specialists, surgeons and so many others were fantastic when caring for my father and we feel so lucky we had him for almost 7 years after the original diagnosis. He met his newest grandchildren, travelled to some lovely places and celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with my mum.
He was never one to give up without a fight
He sadly passed away on Saturday August the 31st with causes of death on his certificate being ischaemic leg and oesophageal cancer.
Even at the very end he was still fighting to stay with us. His passing has left us all devastated but so very proud of how he faced this awful disease and never gave up.
