Carnforth daughter thanks CancerCare for their support after losing mum

Joanne Cape did everything with her mum, Patricia. They lived together, went out together, they were best friends.

But the 36-year-old lost her mum to terminal liver cancer in 2014 and life has not been quite the same since.

“I miss her terribly, mum was very positive, she was the best of us really,” said Joanne, a self-employed hairdresser who lives in Carnforth.

“Mum kept me going, the fact that I haven’t got a partner or children, she was always there, I couldn’t have asked for a better mum really.

“Me and mum got even closer after dad died 12 years ago. It felt weird to go back to the house on my own, not having mum there.”

Patricia was diagnosed in 2013 of cancer of the bile duct and a few months later the family were told it was terminal.

“There was nothing else they could do, she had a good few months, she spent as much time with the family as she possibly could.”

Patricia lost her battle in October 2014, aged just 64. Her husband, Ian, a well known window cleaner in Carnforth, died in 2005 after a complication of the small bowel.

Shortly after Patrica’s death Joanne was put in touch with the free bereavement counselling services at CancerCare.

Her nearest family member, her brother, lives in the Shetland Islands and Joanne felt she needed to turn to the charity for extra support.

“I have never come here beforehand, I didn’t really know what CancerCare did, what it was about, I thought it was more for people who had cancer,” said Joanne.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do, I wasn’t in a very good place.”

Joanne began her sessions with David Stubbs at Slynedales, Lancaster, in January 2015 and had more in 2016.

“Coming here has made me realise that I need to stop being negative that my mum will always be in my heart and I do have a good life.

“They say time is a good healer, you never get over it, I don’t think anybody ever will, but you come to deal with 
it all.”