Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Alison never gave up. She fought all the way and stayed positive to the end’
“Alison immersed herself in finding out all she could about her illness to better understand it and how to fight it.
“Although we knew her condition was terminal, when the end came it was shocking and unexpected. Alison deteriorated very quickly.
“Last Tuesday we were told she only had days left to live. She passed away in Ninewells last Friday.”
Alison last spoke to the Tele in 2015, when she was reunited with a man who helped her following a horrific car accident 18 years previously.
Garry Birley spoke soothingly to Alison as she struggled to remain conscious after a head-on crash with a milk tanker in Huddersfield in November 1997.
Following an appeal to find the mystery Good Samaritan on social media, Alison said “a shiver went up my spine” when she heard hotelier Garry’s voice on the phone again.
Following her cancer diagnosis, Alison gave a poignant account of her illness, saying: “Cancer has changed my life and the one thing it has taught me is that there is nothing more important than our Alison Craven health and the love of family and friends.”
In January, Alison revealed that her cancer had spread. She started a new course of chemotherapy which she hoped would stabilise things as she prepared to travel to the Hallwang Clinic in Germany for groundbreaking immunotherapy treatment. However, the total cost of an initial treatment plan cost up to £50,000.
Fundraising efforts to help her towards her target included coffee mornings, plus a sale of some of Alison’s stunning pictures.
One of her photographs was of the famous Glenfinnan Viaduct.
When she took it, she said: “For any Harry Potter fans out there — I took this photo of the Glenfinnan Viaduct (aka the Harry Potter bridge) three days after I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I remember hanging out of the window to get this shot and not knowing what my future held.” Anthony added: “Her cancer had a major impact on her life and the life of all of us but she kept going as best she could for everyone’s sakes.
“She was still driving in February and she was taking photographs for as long as she could, taking pictures with her phone, mostly out of our bedroom window.”