Probably be my last
lington,” he said. “It was fantastic – everybody said even if it hadn’t been about me being ill, it was the best Christmas they’d ever had.
“People don’t get together like that very often and it’s strange to think that if I hadn’t been ill it wouldn’t have happened.
“It was particularly special to have Betsy there. Even though she’s only young, you could see her eyes were all over the place, she was enjoying it.”
Anthony, who works as a specifications manager for a construction firm, was fit and healthy until he started showing symptoms of jaundice in May.
He went to the doctor believing he had simply “overdone it” on a family holiday in Spain at Easter.
But scans revealed the he had a tumour in his pancreas.
By the time the cancer was discovered it had spread to his lungs and lymph nodes, putting it in the stage four category – which occurs if it has spread to other parts of the body.
Doctors gave him between two and six months to live at the time, but his latest scans have shown that the tumour hasn’t grown.
He said: “Although it’s still terminal, it’s shifted a little bit, so I’m probably in the six months to a year bracket now.
“I’m so glad we planned that big family Christmas because even if I do make it to this December, it will probably be my last. I can’t see me getting to the next one.”
After his diagnosis Anthony made the decision not to have treatment for the disease, choosing instead to make the most of whatever time he has left.
He has also thrown himself into fundraising, raising almost £13,000 for Pancreatic Cancer Action.
To donate to Anthony’s fundraising drive, visit www. justgiving. com/ fundraising/ AnthonySmith63