Paul and Carys met at the gym, where he was the manager. From the moment they met, they were inseparable. “We always said we must have known each other in another life,” Carys recalls. “It was just so easy, like we were made for each other.” 

Paul was full of energy, sociable, and always on the go. When he started feeling tired and forgetful, Carys assumed he was overworking. But when he began struggling to read and slurring his words, his friends urged him to get checked. A trip to A&E confirmed their worst fears—Paul had a brain tumour. 

Carys remembers the last time he was admitted to hospital, “I remember staying in this like tiny little room. It was so small, and the window didn’t even open. All his family and friends couldn’t even fit in to visit him and say goodbye. I said he wanted to go the hospice, but the doctors warned that he was too unstable to be moved. But after days of uncertainty, he recovered enough to be transferred to Fair Havens.” 

“I remember walking in and thinking, this is really lovely,” Carys says. “But it hit me—he’s never going to leave here again.” 

“Since Paul had got his diagnosis, I’d done all of his care, but at Fair Havens I handed over all that responsibility, it wasn’t all on me anymore. 

Paul spent his final months at Fair Havens, where Carys moved in to be by his side. “In a weird way, I really enjoyed being here,” she says. “It was the best place we could be in the worst situation. They made everything just that little bit easier.” 

“He had these big windows so he could still see the outside. We got him into the recliner chair and ventured out of his room too. We even got to take him outside in the garden one day. It’s shocking what we took for granted before, but for him, just feeling the fresh air again was so special. His world had gotten so much smaller, but he still had tea, cake, and the people he loved. That was enough.” 

To find out more about how you or someone you know would benefit from the care at Fair Havens, click here.

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Published in 2025