Selfless Wife Keeps Terminal Cancer A Secret From Family, Forgoes Treatment To Care For Ailing Husband

A selfless wife kept her cancer a secret from her family so that she could forgo treatment in order to care for her ailing husband. The woman, Val Turner, found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with breast cancer. However, she knew that the treatments needed would limit her ability to care for her husband, Bernard Turner, who was bedridden with multiple sclerosis. Val would keep the cancer a secret from her family until 10 days before her death, when the symptoms became so bad that she had to tell her children about her plight.

The Daily Mail reports that Val Turner spent the last eight years of her life caring for her husband. Val was a nurse that always put everyone else first. The couple’s children said that their mother was selfless and that they did not find out about her “brave decision” to keep the cancer a secret until 10 days before her death.

“Mum chose to spend her time caring for my dad rather than having treatment for her illness. It was a very brave decision not to tell anyone. How mum kept her illness a secret through the pain she must have endured is amazing. If she had gone in to hospital for chemotherapy she wouldn’t have been able to care for dad. But other people were more important to her than herself – everybody who knew here will tell you that. She always came last on her list and everyone else came first.”

According to the Hereford Times, in order to put her husband’s care first in her life, Val had to endure the pain and emotional toll of cancer alone for two years. It was discovered that the selfless woman had been battling the cancer for two years privately without complaint. She never took treatments as she did not want the chemotherapy to hinder her ability to care for Bernard. Therefore, Val would pass away just two months after her husband Bernard. Her death would come just 10 days after she informed her daughters of her breast cancer, leaving them shocked, but understanding.

“We only found out about the seriousness of her illness 10 days before she died. Mum chose a couple of good years with her husband rather than three years with treatment. She was a nurse through and through – she always put others first.”

This isn’t the first wife to put the plight of their husband before their own. In fact, this couple was called the “picture of true love” after photos surface of a tiny hunchback woman leading her blind husband through hurried streets with a simple cane.

[Image Credit: Hereford Times]