At 7:30 am on the 12th of January 2008 I lost the love of my life after a 16-month battle with cancer.

Without the strength and support of my two lovely daughters, Toni and Samantha, and their wonderful husbands (Steven and Warren) I don't know how I would have been able to carry on during that last week or so of Jean's life, and I owe a big 'Thank You' to them and indeed to all of my family.

I'd like to say a special 'Thank You' also, to all those friends, both in Australia and right around the world, whose telephone calls and emails of condolences and sympathy were such a great source of comfort to me.

In the latter part of 2006 Jean was diagnosed with lung cancer, and in November of that year she underwent surgery to remove the top one-third of her right lung. The surgery was pronounced successful, and we were told that they had 'got it all'.

Alas, that turned out not to be the case, and in May it re-appeared, this time in the trapezius muscle in her left shoulder. This diagnosis took a little time to confirm, as stray cancer cells can apparently get into the bloodstream and turn up somewhere else in the body as a result, often in a bone but rarely in a muscle.

The wonderful people at Liverpool Hospital's Cancer Therapy Centre prescribed a course of Radiation Therapy to bombard this growth, and she had a daily session over 15 days in June 2007.

The physical results of such therapy don't show up immediately, so we had to wait a month or so before going back to the Cancer Therapy Centre for a follow up examination.

The doctors were able to tell us in early August that the tumour had shrunk considerably as a result of the Radiation Therapy, and that Jean had had 'a good result'.

At around this time, Jean began to notice a numbness in the right side of her face, and before too long this started to show up in her right hand and arm, and then in her right leg and foot.

Soon, she could no longer walk unaided, and needed constant care and help with everything. It was my privilege then to become her primary nurse and carer, and I took care of all her medicating and other health needs.

We did get occasional visits from a Palliative Care Nursing Service to check on the progress of her condition, but it always seemed to me that these were 'adminstrative visits', with many notes being taken and sympathy offered, but not much else.

By now she was spending more and more time being confined to bed and her wheelchair, and couldn't stay in either one for any length of time as she soon became quite uncomfortable and needed to swap back again.

She hadn't lost her sense of humour though, and enjoyed sitting at the dining room table to watch her favourite TV programs and observe me out in the yard hanging out the washing. She said that I'd become pretty good at doing that along with the other housework - and the shopping - and that when she got well again I could keep all those jobs permanently! And I could have the ironing too...

The paralysis of her right hand side got worse as the weeks went by, and despite numerous X-rays, CT Scans and MRI Scans etc the doctors were unable to diagnose what was causing this problem.

Then, in late November she had yet another MRI Scan and this time two small tumours showed up in her brain. One of them was apparently pressing on nerves and thus affecting her Central Nervous System and it was this that was causing the paralysis.

Radiation Therapy was again prescribed, and this time it was to be a very high dosage to the brain area. It took place over five days in December, with the last one being on Christmas Eve.

The hope was that this Radiation would shrink the brain tumours and allow the nerves to settle back into the proper position, thus alleviating the paralysis and eventually allowing Jean to return to good health.

Our two lovely daughters, Toni and Samantha, had already planned Christmas Day at our home, and prepared all the goodies at their own homes then brought it to our place to give us - and all of our family - a wonderful and memorable Christmas.

It was quite a day, and Jean managed to have a little Christmas Dinner and spend time with her two girls and their husbands; her much-loved grandchildren; and the partners of the grown up ones.

The picture alongside is of Jean with Samantha on Christmas Day 2007.

Unfortunately, the Radiation Treatment hadn't done the hoped for job, and Jean's condition began to worsen daily immediately after Christmas.

By New Year she was in considerable pain and discomfort, and stronger painkillers were prescribed to replace the liquid Morphine that she'd been having for several months.

This only helped a little, and it soon became apparent that she needed hospital care, so we called in the Palliative Care people - who quickly got her transferred by ambulance to Braeside Hospital at Fairfield (NSW).

Here, the wonderfully caring doctors and staff made her comfortable on a special mattress and gave her very strong medication with an automatic shot every three minutes.

This gave Jean some much needed and peaceful sleep, and she was more relaxed than I had seen her for many months.

She had a single room at Braeside, and they provided a trundle bed for one of us to stay with her through the nights.

Toni and Samantha both decided to stay with Jean during those last few nights, and insisted that I sleep at home (15 minutes away), coming back to the hospital to be with Jean again in the morning.

Jean slept pretty soundly for the last three days of her life, and the girls phoned me at 6am on the Saturday, saying that the staff had advised that 'it won't be long now'.

So, with her immediate family: Toni, Samantha and me at her bedside, my beloved Jeannie slipped peacefully away.

I will love her forever.

Rest In Peace, Jeannie

Eric