Nick & Jenni’s story

Perfection can not last forever. Nick’s diagnosis in 2022 came as a complete shock, he was incredibly fit and never had a thing wrong with him in his life. He went to the doctors for a routine check, his PSA came back; he was stage 3 prostate cancer. We were in bits; I just couldn’t believe it. We were reassured that treatment was possible, he sailed through it all, radiation therapy, hormone therapy - he never moaned, just got on with it, in typical Nick style.

Then it went from bad to worse, strange symptoms, admissions to hospital, he just got worse and worse, nobody seemed to know what was wrong. Within just six weeks we got to the last stage of the illness and he required palliative care. I don’t think Nick was aware he was going to die. As he left the hospital, in an ambulance, he was screaming in pain, at every bump in the road.

We arrived at Thames hospice and finally felt safe, like a metaphorical warm blanket wrapped around us. It was very final, we knew it was the end, but what I love about the Hospice is they took care of us as Nick’s loved ones, and that is exactly what he would have wanted, for us to be cared for.

Nick was just 75 when he died in 2024, it was a beautiful sunny day, with the sliding doors wide open, the sheer curtains breathing in and out with the gentle breeze in a room overlooking the beautiful Hospice gardens. He died with the dignity and love he deserved surrounded by the family he loves, at Thames Hospice.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time our lives were shattered by cancer. Our lives changed forever in late 2019 when our youngest Granddaughter Emily was diagnosed, at just 5 weeks old, with Infantile Leukaemia, it was catastrophic. She was diagnosed and the world locked down in March 2020. Life changed forever, for the first time, in that moment, even before Nick was also diagnosed with cancer.

Generally, both Nick and I always felt that somebody else’s needs were more than ours. So, in 2021, during lockdown, we walked the equivalent miles from Wokingham, Berkshire to our favourite place on earth: Florence, Italy, in support of Young Lives v Cancer. We did our bit for our Granddaughter by putting one foot in front of the other. Emily is now 6 years old and still fighting Leukaemia.

When you lose someone you love, you have incredible lows and incredible highs. One morning after losing Nick, I thought ‘I need to go for a walk’, so I got my trainers on again and did a route I had done hundreds of times before with Nick. During that walk I set myself a new challenge that by my 80^th Birthday in November 2026 to figuratively walk over 1000 miles back from Florence, Italy – alone.

I feel so passionate about Thames Hospice, and fundraising is so important because it gives other people the invaluable opportunity to have the care and support we had in Nick’s last couple of days.

I am really hoping people will get behind my walk and support me with donations, I want Nick to be proud of what I’m doing, I know he would really want me to do it and support the Hospice in any way I can.

Jenni’s JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/jenni-walkhomefromflorence