Sisters' double grief after losing husband and best pal to same 'silent killer'
Two sisters are grieving after losing two loved ones to the same 'silent killer' disease - and now plan to fulfil a dying wish.
Andrea Harrower lost her husband and Cathy Booth's best friend died - both to pancreatic cancer.
Paddy Harrower was given just 14 weeks to live after being diagnosed on Easter Sunday (April 17) last year.
The former PE teacher died on July 24, 2022.
His symptoms - which presented late - included indigestion and pain in the upper abdomen.
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Cathy also lost schoolfriend Natalie Wilson who died age 40 from the disease, leaving behind three young children.
Five days before he died, Paddy challenged his wife and sister-in-law to undertake an epic challenge to raise money for research.
On Friday, they will set out on their 480-mile cycling journey around Northern Ireland.
The money will go to support local pancreatic cancer charity NIPANC.
Andrea Harrower and Cathy Booth will be starting an epic challenge on Friday (Belfastlive WS)The #PedalThePeriphery event will start at the gates of Ormeau Park, in Belfast, on June 9, reports BelfastLive.
George Ezra will be playing there at the Belsonic Music Festival - with Paddy having adopted the singer's uplifting Green Green Grass song during his illness, which was later played at his funeral.
The pair will be followed on the ride by Andrea’s recently restored quirky, 1974 purple VW Beetle support vehicle.
Unroadworthy, it was repaired, free-of-charge, by Master Technician Mark Strutt, previously accredited through Volkswagen.
His brother John also died of the illness three years ago.
Paddy’s bike will be mounted on top of the VW and will make the metaphorical journey along with Cathy and Andrea.
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Andrea, a personal trainer from Dromara, said: "Cycling was so important to Paddy, his self-devised challenges and other official events at home and abroad.
Andrea and her family (Belfastlive WS)"He used the bike to get to work and on family holidays.
"During his illness he set himself his own challenges as a reason ‘to get out of bed until the day he died’.
"As a family, we and our two sons, Fraser, 19, and Alex, 15, and my sister and brother did a final ride out from home with him only a couple of weeks before he passed away.
"His motto was 'I’m not living with cancer, cancer is living with me and I’m taking it for a ride'."
During the two-day, clock-wise cycle around NI, the sisters are adopting the NIPANC charity slogan #TimeMatters to continue raising public awareness about the need to understand the symptoms of the disease and seek early diagnosis and treatment.
Time also matters in reaching route points and the finish line.
A third hashtag, #IBlamePaddy is also being introduced to inject some fun into fundraising.
Andrea added: "#IBlamePaddy came about when people started finding out he was terminally ill.
"Friends and family felt they had no excuse but to join in some of the things he was doing including cold water swimming and kayaking."
She continued: "I don’t think he realised the impact he had on people.
"He was a modest man who wouldn’t like too much attention, but we think Paddy would be secretly pleased that the hashtag can be used by anyone fundraising to literally blame him on any crazy thing they do, to raise money and awareness for this important cause.”
Cathy, a former Director at BDO who now runs her own business consultancy, from Hillsborough, said: “Within five years, I not only lost Paddy, an incredible brother-in-law, but also one of my school friends Natalie of 30-years to this devastating disease.
"Andrea and I are on a mission to raise awareness and fund vital research so other people don’t have to go through what we have.
"We want as many people involved in fundraising as possible and will be talking to schools, rugby and cycling/sports clubs along the route about how they can be part of our journey and #IBlamePaddy too.
"For us, this had to be an endurance challenge, given what we have both personally experienced.
"We know, no matter what physical and mental distress and pressure we put on ourselves during this challenge, it is absolutely nothing compared to what someone on a pancreatic cancer journey is facing.
The first audit in over ten years into pancreatic cancer in Northern Ireland has revealed there has been an 86% increase in confirmed cases, rising from 152 in 2001 to 283 in 2020 since a previous audit was carried out in 2001.
The audit published in May was funded by NIPANC with the audit work undertaken by the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR), Queen’s University Belfast in partnership with HPB clinical staff in the Belfast Trust.
Its findings have prompted Mark Taylor, NI Director of the Royal College of Surgeons and Consultant Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Cancer Surgeon to call for a strengthening of local pancreatic cancer services as ‘incidences are likely to continue to rise’ due to multifactorial reasons such as ‘increasing age, obesity and diabetes.’
Pancreatic cancer symptoms include, jaundice, yellowing of the skin and eyes, changes to taste and toilet habits. For more information on other symptoms, or how to get support, please visit here.
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