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Fiona Akers was not the kind of person anyone is likely to forget. Bright, beautiful and vibrant, a much loved wife, mother, daughter and friend, she lived life to the full, right up until her death, from breast cancer, at the age of just 33.
But her husband, Adam, was determined that remembering Fiona should have a positive outcome for her family and friends. He decided to set up a tulip fund in his wife's name, to honour Fiona and raise funds for Dorothy House Hospice Care.
The whole family were supported by Dorothy House at various stages
of Fiona's illness, which was diagnosed when the Akers' younger daughter, Jessica, was four months old.
"The girls have grown up with Mummy having cancer," Adam says. "Fi found the tumour when Jessica was about three months old and Grace was 18 months, but the doctors said they thought she had had it for four or five years, so she was very young to have breast cancer."
She was treated at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, undergoing 27 sessions of chemotherapy and 39 of radiotherapy. She lost her hair twice, but never complained, says Adam." Cancer was always an inconvenience to Fi - she never let it dominate our lives and she never let it affect the girls.
"They have grown up with it and they witnessed everything that happened. It was very painful at the time, but looking at it now, I’m sure we did the right thing."
Fiona and the family used the Hospice at Home service, and the Dorothy House Nurse Specialist became a trusted friend. Towards the end of her life, Fiona went in to the in-patient unit at Dorothy House. "She was feeling very low, and was on the point of giving up,” says Adam. "I called Olwen, her Nurse Specialist, and she got her in to the hospice. They looked after her - and me and the girls - so well. It was lovely, with the chef asking her what she thought she might like to eat, and when the doctors came to see her, they'd sit on the bed to talk to her. And the children were made so welcome - they treated it like home, running round, and riding their bikes outside.
"I always think that if the RUH is a battleship, Dorothy House is a cruise liner. Fi went in on a stretcher, but she walked out. I think it gave her an extra eight weeks of life."
The Akers also had support from the Dorothy House Family Support Team. Adam says: "Jenny Van Dyk, the children's social worker, was fantastic. She came to see us when Fi came home, to discuss the children. She gave me a lot of help.
"As a family, we were always very open about what was happening. A couple of generations ago, death was much more a natural part of living. Now it is much more shut away and not talked about - but it is the reality of life.
"And I now want to make it part of my life to raise money for Dorothy House in Fi's memory. We'll also be raising money for research - Fi was so young, there is some likelihood of it affecting the girls in future, so I can't sit back and do nothing."
Fiona's friends are also very much involved in raising money for the tulip fund, says Adam. "I'm so lucky in having a great supportive group of friends. They've been with us all the way through this, and are still with us now.
"They're helping to organise the Pink Party we're holding at Warminster Assembly Rooms in November, and we're planning more events next year - hopefully a summer party in the park, in Warminster, with a jazz band.
"Having the fund set up has made it much easier to raise money - people know exactly where it's going and it's a tribute to Fi.”She was my hero - I've lost my best friend as well as my wife. We were together 15 years - she died just 55 minutes before what would have been our 15-year anniversary.
"I miss her dreadfully." |
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