I've been to see Sheffield United play Ipswich Town earlier, 18 months earlier i went out on the piss with my Dad, he used to be a big bloke who liked nothing more than a few beers and Crystal Palace, we drank all day and went back home to his and had a couple of Whisky's, he ended up throwing up all over the place, i took this absolute piss out of him for it.
A couple of months later it had got worse for him, he couldn't keep anything down, never mind beer, he couldn't keep a slice of toast down, that persuaded him to go to the doctors, who refered him in to the hospital as they thought he had nothing worse than gallstones.
They performed a minor procedure to remove the gallstones but couldn't find any, they then sent in him for a scan to find the root of the problem.
The scan showed a large tumour on his Pancreas, this had blocked his bile duct and caused him to be sick, this was a week before Christmas, they fitted a drain to remove his bile, as the tumour was causinfg a blockage of his bile duct, it made no difference as it still made him as ill as hell. I was unwell that christmas with flu and felt somehow guilty being not very well at the same time.
In the first week of Janurary he underwent a procedure called Whiliples where they removed the Pancreas, and when they did that they discovered the tumour was cancerous which was what we already suspected, however the cancer had spreaded to his gall bladder and his liver.
Now the only hope that he had was that the cancer didn't spread whilst he was recovering from the op.
Sadly thar didn't happen, it took a grip and i watched him day in and day out, his mind giving it all to beat this disease, his body not responding. I honestly thought it would turn out ok, and decided not to see him for a few weeks as he didn't want me to see him without his dignity, but i spoke to him every day to see how he was, and try and talk football and cricket with him.
I got a phone call one night at work, i had spoken to my Dad and known he was really weak earlier, it came from my sister who was in tears, my Dad had been rushed in to the Palliative Care Unit at the NGH, and i finished work that night and rushed straight there and watched him die thanks to Pancreatic Cancer 24 hours later.
He was 54
When i look at what happened over those weeks, and i look back at the result this afternoon, i couldn't give a toss about the result to be honest.
