Eunice and David Holding Hands Together

For Eunice, David and their families this year has been the toughest they have faced yet.

Married for 35 years, like any true partnership, David and Eunice have supported each other for three decades.

20 years ago David was there for Eunice when she received her first cancer diagnosis, just shortly after losing her daughter to the same illness, taking care of her and supporting her through to remission.

Eunice originally from Burnley and David originally from Wolverhampton met at the Cat’s Whiskas’s nightclub in Burnley with Eunice Saying of David “It was love at first sight and we used to spend every Friday and Saturday night Dancing together, initially disco, then moving on to Sequence dancing which we enjoyed doing for many years”.  And that was it as they say, from there on in they have been inseparable. 

When the country entered a pandemic in March 2020, David and Eunice decided to spend the majority of their time at their lodge in Southport creating lots more happy memories.

Eunice’s cancer returned in August 2018, and for a long time remained manageable.  But her health was now deteriorating and they returned from Southport to Blackburn in January. Shortly after their return Eunice fell at home and was hospitalised with a broken femur and three ribs. Whilst she was in hospital David became unwell and he too went to hospital for a brief stay, diagnosed with a blood clot on his lung. They both returned home to recuperate with support from family. But David’s health continued to worsen and he was admitted to hospital again, this time with a sepsis infection. He remained in hospital for over 7 weeks before he too was given a suspected cancer diagnosis.   

Whilst trying to come to terms with the news in what were already extremely difficult circumstances and with very limited visiting allowed at the hospitals, David and Eunice’s family were made aware by separate consultants each caring for Eunice and David in the hospital, that East Lancashire Hospice had two beds available on the Inpatient Unit.  They describe how these conversations took place independently of each other and that it felt almost as if it were meant to be for them to be together in their final days and as if the stars had aligned.

Within a short period of the conversation taking place, David was admitted to the hospice on a Monday evening and Eunice joined him the following morning in a bed alongside his in the same room where she held his hand as she had always done.

Having been by each other’s side for 35 years, one of Eunice’s last wishes was to be with David on her birthday and on Thursday 15th April 2021, this wish came true when she lay next to him, still holding his hand as she always did, surrounded by Eunice’s daughter Anne and David’s daughters Vicki and Cathy. 

For the family, Eunice and David being able to be together in their last days means the world to them and despite the difficult circumstances, has given them all great comfort.   For the hospice staff caring for them both, it has been an honour to fulfil Eunice and David’s last wishes and to help them make the most of life.