Husband completes wife's cancer blog and 'never stopped loving her to bits'
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THE husband of a Beauly mum-of-two who raised more than £320,000 for cancer treatment has posted an entry in his wife's blog after she died.
Roz Paterson started a blog documenting her experiences with blood cancer.
She described what it felt like to receive the news of her illness and the staggering influx of support she received while raising the money for treatment in the US after she proved resistant to chemotherapy and was ruled as not eligible for pioneering alternative treatment in England.
But the money – raised through crowdfunding online and with community events – was no longer needed when she secured NHS backing in February and started treatment in London the following month.
Malcolm Mcdonald said he and his wife called it a rollercoaster.
"Up one minute, down the next, elation as it rose, desperation as it plummeted, twisting and corkscrewing and bending our hopes and fears out of shape as it veered and yawed its way around a ride that no-one knew the shape of," he stated.
With a huge swell of community support for her fundraising efforts Ms Paterson (52) refunded all online donations and gave any additional funds to four local cancer charities.
She died at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness on Monday.
"I’m not going to go on about how much I’m going to miss her," stated Mr McDonald. "I can only see the very tip of that particular iceberg so far.
"I’m writing this final post to Roz’s blog because I think it’s the right thing to do.
"Roz’s blog has touched a lot of people. Elegant and frank, threaded through with her signature self-effacing humour, Roz’s posts eloquently told the story of one woman’s battle with cancer.
"And I think, you know, you read her blog and felt like you had got to know her. You had got to really like the way she told her story. You thought she was this wickedly funny, insightful, clever, strong, kind, inspirational, brave woman. You could see the beauty in her, the steel, the fire.
"And the fire still burns bright. In our two beautiful, brave children, in her beloved brother, and deep in my own heart. I was lucky enough to share her life for 27 glorious years and never stopped loving her to bits."
A celebration of her life will be held next Friday at Inverness Crematorium. Donations will be collected for Macmillan Cancer Support and Maggie's Highlands.
