Thanking hospital staff for giving my dad precious extra time
After her dad passed away, Chloe knew she wanted to honour and remember him through his love of motocross. She organised a special event which went on to raise nearly £1,000 for the Radiotherapy department.
Chloe shares her story with us:
“From the start of my life, I can only ever remember my dad having a massive love for motocross. This is something that he passed on to myself, my brothers and our mum. One of my brothers even used to race as a child.
My dad had many motorcycles during his life, and he took excellent care of them. We had a long-running joke that he’d take his bike to the track, get it out to show it off and then wouldn’t ride it as it would get dirty!
If dad wasn’t at the track watching the bikes, he’d have it on the TV on YouTube whilst sipping a cup of tea. He even turned to watching podcasts about the subject. I managed to get Tommy Searle (a British Motocross Champion) to come to our family home to visit my dad, just nine days before he sadly passed away. This is something that I’ll never forget, seeing my dad’s face light up in such a dark time.
When my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer on Thursday 5th January 2023, his tumour was over 7cm in size. Originally the doctors were hoping that they’d be able to cure dad’s cancer as it had not spread, but he was unable to have surgery due to the tumour being so close to his heart.
Originally, the chances of dad being able to have chemotherapy were slim due to him already being so unwell, but luckily they decided to give it a chance. It was a case of seeing how he tolerated it and whether or not they’d continue to give him the treatment.
My dad started his first day of radiotherapy on the 20th February 2023 where he went in for a six-week cycle, doing five rounds a week, and then he would start his chemotherapy on the Wednesday, two days later.
The whole team in both departments at City Hospital were absolutely brilliant with our precious dad. Both him and our amazing mum would come back from the hospital and say how amazingly he was treated, and that nothing was ever too big of an issue. Without the treatment he received, we wouldn’t have been able to spend the quality time we did with him.
On the 26th February 2024, 13 months after his diagnosis, our brave, strong dad passed away comfortably at home, with all the people who loved him the most surrounding him and telling him how much he’s loved. He was the bravest, strongest man, and put on a massive fight against the disease.
Although dad is no longer here, we still cherish him so much and miss him dearly, he is never far from our thoughts and close than ever to our hearts.
He’s the reason I wanted to fundraise for the place that helped us keep our precious dad for longer whilst he was living on borrowed time.
Last year, I held a fundraising event at a private motocross track, Moto 101, and this is something I hope to do every year and make them bigger and better each time to raise more and more funds to go to such a good cause, which is close to my heart.
This year, I’ve also decided to be brave, like dad, and plan on taking on a skydive, even though my biggest fear is heights.
We wanted to say a big thank you to all the team who crossed paths with my dad, his clinical oncologist Dr Anath Sivanandan, his nurse Daryl, the radiographers, and anyone else who helped us keep our precious dad for that little bit longer.
Forever loved, forever missed, forever 51, Drew Copeland.”
We’re so grateful to Chloe for sharing her dad’s story and for helping to make a difference to patients just like him.
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Have a story to share, feel free to get in touch with our team at hello@nottinghamhospitalscharity.org.uk