Mum’s last dream comes true
MUM’S WISH TO SEE HER DAUGHTER IN WEDDING DRESS
THIS is the bittersweet moment a terminally ill mum’s wish to see her daughter in a wedding dress was granted – just over a week before she died.
Karen Green passed away just weeks ago, aged just 53, following a 13-year battle with bowel cancer.
After a sharp decline in her health, Karen knew she would not live long enough to see her 18-year-old daughter Abbi Cockbain walk down the aisle.
So the devoted daughter set out to make her mum’s dream come true by organising a trip to a bridal wear shop.
The pair, from Ryton, spent an afternoon in the MetroCentre surrounded by friends and family picking out a dream dress.
Just over a week after their perfect day together, Karen passed away at St Bede’s Unit, where she had spent the final few weeks of her life.
Abbi said: “It was something mum had always wanted, to see me in a wedding dress.
“I think probably it was because she always knew deep down she wouldn’t get to see it.
“I’m only 18 and we knew she didn’t have long left, so we wanted to make sure she did.
“It was sad because she’s not going to be there for the real thing, but it’s nice to have that memory. It definitely helped her – she spent the whole day smiling.”
Abbi was just five when her mum first started receiving treatment for bowel cancer.
“The first I remember of anything changing is being dropped off at school by someone other than my mum.
“I knew she wasn’t well but it wasn’t until I was about 10 that I realised what was going on.”
Karen’s battle with the disease continued for 13 years – a time that also saw her plagued with liver and heart disease.
The former NHS accountant juggled endless hospital visits with being a full time mum to Abbi and Adam, now 26.
Her condition deteriorated dramatically earlier this year when she was diagnosed with acute kidney failure.
After having a blood transfusion Karen was transferred to St Bede’s Palliative Care Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, where she died on June 1.
Abbi said: “The day before she died she had been asleep all day and we were told she probably wouldn’t come out of it.
“When we got in the next morning they said we had just missed her – she’d gone away in her sleep.
“The nurses sat with her while she died. She had a little glass angel and they’d put it in her hands.”
Abbi is now fundraising for the unit which cared for her mum in her final weeks of life.
“She always said she’d never go to a hospice but she loved it at St Bede’s. The staff were lovely and made us all feel like family.
“Most importantly, mum felt at peace there, and she was content enough to just go in her sleep.”
Abbi, who is due to go to university in autumn and hopes to become a paramedic, has paid tribute to her mum.
“In the year before she died my brother had a baby, Harry, and she was such a loving grandma. She saw him almost every day towards the end. She had a wicked sense of humour. She had such bad luck but she was the happiest person I know.”
To donate to Abbi’s fundraising campaign, go to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/karengreen