Holiday joy turned into '˜nightmare'
AN idyllic holiday turned '¨into a 'living nightmare' for a family from Charnock '¨Richard when dad Gordon Thorpe was diagnosed with cancer.
Gordon, 49, and his wife Donna, 36, had been taking a break at a cottage in Cornwall in August with their three children when Donna noticed that Gordon’s skin had taken on a yellow tint.
Doctors found that Gordon’s bile duct had narrowed and he needed to stay in hospital to have a stent fitted.
However the couple were devastated when later tests also revealled that Gordon had a tumour on his pancreas. Initially doctors told him they could operate to remove the tumour.
However, it then spread, meaning that doctors would not be able to operate.
Gordon was given 12 months to live.
“They basically said to go home and make memories,” said Lynne Davies, 63, Gordon’s mother-in-law.
Gordon is now undergoing chemotheraphy but, knowing that the statistics are against him, his family are raising £50,000 to get him alternative treatment.
Donna wants to see her husband cured for good and has launched a fund-raising drive to see him treated.
So far friends and family have raised upwards of £17,000 through half marathons, dinners, sports tournaments and donations.
Lynne said: “We are doing anything we can do. In Gordon’s own words, ‘when we were on the way down to Cornwall we didn’t have a care in the world. ‘
“‘What happened in the next few days after that was just a nightmare’.”