Wife kept her breast cancer secret so she could care for dying husband
A DEVOTED wife kept her terminal illness a secret from her family so she could care for her seriously ill husband until his death.
Valerie Turner, 66, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago after she had discovered a lump on her breast.
But the ‘selfless’ mother-of-two did not seek treatment as she was committed to caring for her bedbound husband, Bernard, who suffered from multiple sclerosis.
He died aged 68 in March from pneumonia with Mrs Turner at his bedside. She then passed away last month – just ten days after she finally told her daughters Julie Turner, 43, and 41-year-old Clare Crosby about her illness.
Mrs Turner, of Bodenham, Herefordshire, was a nurse at Hereford’s Nuffield hospital for 37 years. She had devoted the last years of her life to round-the-clock care for her husband of 44 years, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago.
Her daughter Miss Turner, a legal worker, said: ‘If she had taken up treatment, she wouldn’t have been able to care for dad. She was a nurse through and through. Other people were more important to her than herself – anybody will tell you that. It was a very brave decision, the fact she didn’t tell anyone.
‘How mum kept her illness a secret through the pain she must have endured is amazing. We only found out about the seriousness of her illness ten days before she died.’
Mrs Turner was described by her family as selfless and brave for keeping her terminal illness a secret to nurse her husband.
Miss Turner, of Evesham, Worcestershire, added: ‘My mum’s sister had also suffered with breast cancer and had treatment, which was not successful. Mum chose a couple of good years with her husband rather than three years with treatment.’
Mrs Turner got a job at the hospital as a theatre nurse and eventually became a theatre manager. She was also full-time carer for her husband, a former gamekeeper at Lower Hope estate in Herefordshire.
Miss Turner said: ‘She always came last on her list and everyone else came first.’
‘Everyone else came first’