Small gesture 'meant everything' during terminal cancer diagnosis

Billy Hall was described by his widow as a "6ft1ins Glaswegian who was scared of nothing".

When the former security manager was told his head and neck cancer was terminal, however, he was of course afraid of what would happen next.

But Suzanne Hall, 52, said the final months of her husband's life were made bearable - and even enjoyable - by staff at Bury Hospice.

Suzanne picked out one small gesture - a pair of red knitted hearts - as particularly meaningful and a source of great comfort since Billy died in May last year.

"They didn't shove it in my face, but they were like 'look, we do these hearts and we're just wondering if you were interested'," she said.

Suzanne kept one with her while her husband had the other, and when he died it was cremated alongside him.

"I put one with Billy to take with him on the next part of his journey and I brought one home with me and I've still got it now with his ashes," she said.

"If you've never been through an experience like me my husband went through, you'd think 'aw, that's cute'.

"But actually it meant everything."

As a woman of faith, Suzanne said she felt like Billy was taking the heart with him and it was "really significant".

She was speaking as the Greater Manchester hospice appealed for volunteers across Bury to knit and donate more of the hearts for its patients.

In a post on social media, it wrote: "One heart will stay with the patient and the other will be given to the patient's family to help bring them some comfort at such an incredibly difficult time."

Suzanne said Billy's time in Bury Hospice enabled them both to cope in what could have been an overwhelmingly bleak and distressing period.

She said Billy's diagnosis came after a trip to the dentist with a lump in his mouth and jaw - and he was initially given antibiotics for a suspected abscess.

When it failed to clear up, he was referred for more tests and the lump was found to be a tumour.

Billy underwent a 15 hour surgical procedure but during a "routine" follow up visit to The Christie hospital he was told the treatment had not worked and he had about two weeks to live.

Suzanne said very early into his diagnosis she wanted him to use Bury Hospice, which her grandmother had helped to fund-raise for years earlier.

But in the beginning, she said, he was reluctant because he believed it was "where people go to die".

Yet from the moment he arrived the care he received was "outstanding", she said.

Despite his two-week prognonis, Billy lasted about two months longer in the hospice's care before dying peacefully, surrounded by his family.

"It has massively helped my grieving process to know just how beautifully he was cared for in that eight weeks," Suzanne said.

"I have used the word care and dignity the whole time, but you know what was so beautiful about the hospice as well is the banter and the fun.

"The nurses don't come in with sad faces - we actually had a laugh and my husband just had the best sense of humour in the world and he thrived.

"I swear he lasted as long as he did because he was in there."

For Suzanne, Billy being in the hospice also took a huge burden off her shoulders particularly when she was able to move in with him full time for the final two weeks of his life.

"I could be his wife again," she said.

"I'd been his carer for a while, and it was so difficult, but when I was in the hospice with him they took all that responsibility off me and I could just love him again and just be with him and just enjoy that time together."

Suzanne has taken part in fundraising activities at the hospice and said she supported helping out in any way possible.

"I will continue to to fund-raise for the hospice and if that means somebody just knitting some hearts and being able to give them to people, or whether it means making a million pounds with something extravagant, it needs to be done," she said.

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