A WOMAN has told of her partner’s battle with pancreatic cancer, hoping to raise awareness for the “community and beyond”.

Fiona Burn and John Hindle met 14 years ago while out with their running club, the Guildford Hash House Harriers, when Fiona was trying to open her car, which was infact John’s.

The Farnham couple spent 12 years living together, with John completing one of the “biggest projects of all time” – the building of a Dutch barge, named Yogi, which was sold.

John also worked as a hair photographer throughout Farnham, and was one of the pioneers for the John Buoy life-saving apparatus installed on boats.

Despite this, Fiona described him as “one of those men that never went to the doctors”.

But after he returned from a sailing trip to Greece complaining of an acid stomach and back ache, Fiona managed to get him to visit.

“He pushed it to one side because he was very active and carried on doing things,” said Fiona.

After tests, John was later diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer on July 26, 2018, and life expectancy without chemotherapy was four months.

Fiona said: “Surprisingly to his family, he decided he wanted to live. It was too soon to go within four months in his eyes, so he decided to fight.”

John started chemotherapy at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in August, almost a month after his diagnosis, which was described as a “frustrating” wait.

“He was sick even on day one in the ward – and then within four days he was in hospital with dehydration,” Fiona told the Herald, with the “so determined” John carrying on despite short recovery times.

Despite his positive outlook, John was told the cancer was terminal, with doctors telling him to “go off and have fun, eat, drink and do whatever you want, fulfill your bucket list”.

They said this without realising John’s appetite had deteriorated because of the cancer.

Fiona said: “I couldn’t believe they did that because he just completely reduced his food intake.

“It took about two weeks before a nurse from the hospital phoned, and said: ‘Has anyone told you that you need to be taking enzymes?’”

Enzyme tablets are used to assist the digestion of fats and improve his appetite, and John was prescribed Creon, but his full appetite never returned.

Fiona described watching John’s “weight just plummet” but that he would occasionally make it out for his favourite strawberry tart and coffee at Elphicks.

As time went on, his health continued to deteriorate, but he still continued with chemotheraphy sessions, and the couple drew up plans to refurbish and spend the summer travelling in a van.

Fiona said: “We thought ‘we can get the summer’, we really thought we’re gonna have the summer, but he just went downhill so sort of quickly”.

Fiona told of the evening the couple had changed rooms, in preparation for a bed to be brought in the following day by Phyllis Tuckwell, when “something catastrophic kind of happened”.

She said: “He suddenly was feeling very cold, and I thought it was the room change, and started getting really thirsty.”

Fiona phoned the district nurse, but within the next minute, she found John “having some sort of seizure”, adding that he was “really restless, tossing and turning”.

Fiona called 999 and was joined by John’s daughter, making him as comfortable as possible, and John later died in the early hours of Wednesday, May 22.

“Everything stops, your world stops, the politics and all that stuff is going on I didn’t even know what was happening,” said Fiona.

Despite this, Fiona hopes that sharing her story for Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month will make people aware of the symptoms, and possibly save someone’s life, and that it would make her feel like she’s done her bit.

“John was my soulmate, my best friend, my lover and I miss him very much. We were together as partners for 14 years and his death has left a huge void,” she concluded.For more details on Pancreatic Cancer UK's Demand Survival Now, see: https://demandsurvivalnow.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/Pancreatic Cancer UK's online symptom checker can be found at: https://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/information-and-support/facts-about-pancreatic-cancer/signs-and-symptoms-of-pancreatic-cancer/