WIFE’S DEATH IN EMOTIONAL TV INTERVIEW
nowhere. I did say a few times to her, ‘You know, this headache has been going on for a while.’
“We ended up having a joint appointment, which was mainly about getting more medication for my depression.
“She came in with me and I said, ‘You know, she’s had this headache for ages, are you worried?’
“The doctor said, ‘I think a lot of it’ – and I completely understand why he said this – ‘a lot of this is down to the fact she is stressed about you.’”
Simon said that by the following week his wife “was really quite bad”.
After another visit to the doctor on the Friday with “fluey” symptoms, she spent the rest of the weekend in bed, before being admitted to hospital on the Monday.
Simon said: “On the Monday night at the Royal Berkshire Hospital I fainted. We knew it was a blood cancer of some sort, it’s a leukaemia of some sort… We thought we are probably OK, people get better from this.
“It all cartwheeled quite quickly.”
Gemma was given a 50/50 chance of survival and got chemotherapy, but during the night she “became more and more confused”.
Simon said: “I put her back into bed at about 4.30. That was the last time I spoke to her.
“I thought she was going to sleep but she was falling unconscious and I never had the chance to even say goodbye.”