Emergency crowdfunding campaign for 46-year-old father with terminal cancer
Daniel Weston from Borehamwood was diagnosed with bowel cancer three and a half years ago. A fundraising campaign to support his family has so far raised more than £16,000.
Friends and family of a Borehamwood father-of-two with terminal cancer have launched an emergency crowdfunding campaign to support his wife and two young children.
Daniel Weston, 46, was diagnosed with bowel cancer three and a half years ago. The disease spread to his liver, lymph nodes, pelvis, neck and lung. A patient at Barnet General Hospital up until a week ago, a scan gave the devastating diagnosis of necrosis of the bowel, giving Weston just days or weeks to live.
He is now at home, with his wife of 10 years Hayley, 47, daughter Leia, aged six, and eight-year-old son Raphael. Both children are pupils at Clore Shalom Primary School in Shenley.
In an attempt to ensure the young family is financially cared for, close friend Ronit Raman set up a crowdfunding page, writing: “As this has come as a sudden shock to Hayley and Dan. I would like to raise money for them to support them after he passes and to give Dan the reassurance that he can go knowing that for the period after he passes away, Hayley won’t have to worry about money.”
To date, more than 280 supporters have donated over £16,000.
Hayley’s twin brother Damian Collier, seven minutes older than his sister, spoke about the fundraiser to Jewish News: “It’s been a really difficult time. It will give my brother-in-law great comfort that they’ll have some financial support after he passes away.”
In what Hayley describes as “a cruel twist of fate”, she and Damian lost their own mother in 1983, when she was 34 and they were just seven years old. Their parents had been married for a decade, the same number of years since Hayley and Daniel married at Micklefield Hall in Hertfordshire.
“She was born with a hole in her heart in 1949,” says Damian of their mother “and never really recovered from it. She was ill from it her whole life. She died June 7th 1983. Next week will be exactly 40 years to the day. We are getting really close the irony of that date.”
Describing his sister as being “right in the eye of the storm” with Dan in his last days, Collier says that despite the “sad and strange parallels” between the two tragic incidents, a more poetic way of looking at things is that “he’s going to join our mother”.
“It’s like history repeating itself, from a different angle. This time, we’re seeing it through the eyes of adults who are supporting the family.”
With Daniel now at home, Collier admits it’s been incredibly traumatic for the entire family: “He’s there, he’s conscious, spending time with Hayley and the kids. But as with all these things, he is deteriorating and it’s only a matter of time. He’s sat there at home on his couch, and we’re having conversations as if he could live forever but we all know the reality of what is coming and are just trying to support my sister and her kids.”
Collier says he and his sister are “best friends” and that the response from family and strangers alike “has been so lovely – the story has resonated with so many people.”
To support the Weston family please click here.
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