Cancer victim who was ‘reunited’ with father

Cancer patient Sandra Frost, who died on 19 February, 2008, overcame her suffering in her last moments to have what her husband believes was a near-spiritual experience.

Mrs Frost had lain with a blank gaze in her bed at Derby City General Hospital, as she fought the disease in her liver and bowel.

But she had just moments left when her eyes suddenly brightened.

Her husband, David, said: "She had her family sitting around her, holding her hands, when a sort of gleam came into her eyes. There was a look of surprise on her face as if to say 'what are you doing here?'

"I think it was her father who died when she was a little girl, he'd come to take her.

"I'm not a religious person but what I saw that morning helped me get through losing her because I feel she's with her father."

Mrs Frost, 59, was given six months to live in May 2007 when she was diagnosed. She died eight months later.

After falling ill she gave up her work as a machinist at Courtaulds, in Spondon, Derby, and Mr Frost, 58, took time off from his meter reading job at Severn Trent to care for her.

Mr Frost said: "I told her I loved her every day. Two weeks ago she told me she'd had enough of fighting it and that ripped me apart."

The couple, of Trent Rise, Spondon, have two sons, Stuart, 34, and Andrew, 37.

Their daughter, Angela, 32, announced her pregnancy days before her mother's death. She said: "Mum couldn't speak but after I told her the news I asked her if she understood and she nodded. It felt so wonderful that I'd told her."

She said the family was extremely grateful to cancer charity Macmillan, which provided a counselling service and gave them a £400 grant to help pay the bills and buy other necessities.

Angela said: "If it wasn't for Macmillan, people in our position would be lost."