Don had the same cancer as my younger brother, my brother was a few years younger than him, he was 46 when he passed away in 2006.
Unlike Don my brother wanted to be alone when he departed, he did not want anyone there to hold him back from leaving and he chased his best friend away, I had driven my wife back to Belgium and I was flying back to Scotland to look after him, but I knew as I left him in the hospital that I would not see him again, it was very hard to walk away that day. As soon as I got away from the house he got a taxi from the hospital and went home.
He told his friend that he felt like a ghoul getting the blood transfusions which were keeping him alive as he could no longer make new red blood cells due to the cancer spreading to his bone marrow, he had told me that getting the transfusions chilled him and made him uncomfortable, all through this he never took any pain medication at all, not even an aspirin, how he managed that I don't know but I do know he was in great pain from it. His friend Graham sat with him until about 1am when my brother chased him home, he was found the next morning by the wife of another friend who had come over to check up on him.
I was just in the air flying back to Glasgow when the news of his passing was sent to my wife, they tried to catch me on the plane and later in the airport but I was focused on getting back home and was making best speed as I had tight timings on the train connections so they missed me. At Queen St. Station I had a few minutes spare so I phoned my wife to say I had arrived safely and she broke the news to me as at the same time the Tannoy called my name to go to customer services. Scotrail upgraded my ticket to first class for the journey up to Inverness which was kind of them.
The doctor informed me that Derek had passed peacefully in his sleep, with the lack of red blood cells not enough oxygen was getting into his system and he would have drifted off into a sleep that he would not wake up from.
Reading about Don just brought the memories flooding back, and the guilt I still feel about not being with Derek when he slipped away, I know that my brother went on his own terms and how he wanted, but it still hurts that I was not there for him.
Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil Sons of the hound come here and get flesh Clan Cameron