12:10pm Saturday 13th March 2010
By Emma Streatfield
FOUR-YEAR-OLD Lucy Cole and her mum Louise will send a balloon to the heavens today to mark a painful anniversary.
It is exactly one year since their lives changed for ever when Lucy’s dad, Gift of Life campaigner Paul Cole, died of leukaemia.
Louise, 36, of Braemar Close, Lawn, said it had been a hard year.
“I have mixed emotions. I think there are going to be sad moments and happy moments,” she said.
“I always remember his smile and just his general love of everyone.
“I miss him every day and we talk about him every day.”
To commemorate the anniversary, Louise and Lucy will be at Kingsdown Crematorium to release two helium balloons “for Daddy”.
They may also visit Cotswold beauty spot Bourton-on-the-Water, one of Paul’s favourite places.
Paul, 42, of Conan Doyle Walk, Liden, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in April 2008.
The former Honda worker endured four rounds of chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant in October 2008.
Unfortunately, Paul’s aggressive type of leukaemia could not be completely destroyed before the transplant so his immune system could not fight the disease when it returned.
He stopped treatment in February 2009 after he was told there was no possibility of him going into remission.
Paul’s family have gone through big changes in the past year.
They have moved from Liden to Lawn, Lucy has started pre-school and Louise has a new partner, Trevor.
Louise said: “I’m a bit more positive now than I was then, but I always knew I would move on because that was one of Paul’s last wishes for me to move on and be happy again, not just for me but for Lucy.
“I think I would have found it harder had I not had Lucy – she’s been a great comfort.”
However, Louise admitted it was difficult to think of her daughter growing up without his father.
She said: “School is going to be the hard thing, it’s her first day at school in September – that’s always a milestone.”
Louise has kept all the newspaper reports about Paul to help Lucy understand more about her dad when she is older.
She said: “I think she understands in a way because to her, Daddy’s in the twinkle stars. She understands when I say we’re going to the crematorium,” said Louise.
“She says that he had a ‘baddy’ – that’s her way of knowing he was poorly. Sometimes she says ‘why did Daddy have a baddy’, and I explain, some people get baddies and doctors can’t make them better.”
Despite his difficulties, Paul campaigned throughout his illness for people to become organ and bone marrow donors.
“He did a lot in his short lifetime,” said Louise. “By the end of it, he said he was proud of what he did and he had achieved everything he wanted to.
“He’s someone Lucy can be proud of. “He was a very courageous man, the way he fought his illness.
“He was a very lovely caring family man, he lived for his family.”
However, Louise believes that Paul remains a presence in their lives. “Sometimes you feel you do things and think he knew that, he was watching that.
“I believe he’s looking after us.”
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