Fiona Douglass, 60, from Sully, got the right support when she needed it most...
Waking up in November 2013, I headed to the next room to check on my mum.
She’d been quite poorly, and I was staying with her to look after her.
But this wasn’t a problem – I was incredibly close with my mum, Dot.
Growing up an only child with her and my dad Peter, we were the Three Musketeers.
Dad worked very hard to provide for us, so Mum and I spent lots of time together.
Taking me to dance and violin lessons, she really was my best friend.
And when Dad sadly passed away aged 68 in 1996 after suffering a heart attack and asthma, Mum and I were even closer.
I chose not to have children, lived near Mum and was then single, so I was there for whatever she needed.
‘I’m fine, Fiona,’ she’d promise, always so stoic.
Mum was the most important person in my life – I ensured she was cared for.
At 78, she’d broken her hip and needed more support.
I’d take her shopping – she liked to go to M&S for one thing and Morrisons for another item, determined to stay very independent.
We always made it into a bit of a day out.
But in November 2013 doctors thought that she had gastroenteritis, suffering with stomach pains and diarrhoea, and recommended bed rest.
Mum had refused to go for any tests but was feeling very poorly – she was very weak.
And when I went to check on her, she was up out of bed.
‘What are you doing out of bed?’ I asked.
‘I feel a lot better,’
she replied. ‘I’m going to go downstairs to make something to eat.’
Only as we spoke, Mum started saying what sounded like total gobbledygook.
Is she having a stroke? I thought in horror.
I immediately knew something was wrong, and quickly dialled 999.
Thankfully an ambulance arrived very fast, and Mum
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was taken to Cardiff University Heath Hospital.
Following behind in the car, I was racked with worry.
And arriving in resus, Mum wasn’t saying a lot.
But I could tell that she was very frightened.
I sat with her all day and most of the night,
holding her hand.
At first doctors thought it was a stroke, but after a couple of days the registrar came to speak to me.
‘Has she lost a lot of weight recently?’ they asked.
I’d been working in Essex as a sales director so had been commuting back and forth to Wales. Mum had also been wearing lots of baggy clothes. But thinking about it, she had lost weight.
Within 48 hours, Mum wasn’t able to use the toilet
