Dying man from West Sussex pens 30 years’ worth of birthday cards to twin daughters

A father wrote birthday cards for the first 30 years of his twin daughters’ lives as he lay dying from an aggressive brain tumour.

Nick Keenan, of Lindfield, West Sussex, was diagnosed with a tennis ball-size astrocytoma in 2015 after weeks of suffering with shooting pins and needles down his right arm.

He underwent two debulking surgeries, radiotherapy, infusion and oral chemotherapy, prescription cannabinoids and a number of natural remedies, but died in November 2020, nine months after being told his tumour had developed into a glioblastoma (GBM). He was just 34 years old, and his daughters were only 17 months at the time.

Nick’s wife Victoria, with whom he communicated non-verbally for six months after losing the ability to speak, said: "Nick was everyone’s rock, and very much mine. He was incredibly strong and went to work every day of his radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which I was inspired by.

"He also managed to support me going through IVF like any good husband would, even though he was going through much bigger things. It was never about him.

"He was consoling others as he was dying and he wrote our girls, Rose and Sophia, birthday cards for the first 30 years of their lives. He wanted to be with them in spirit as they celebrated their birthdays without him.

"Hopefully, it will give them a better idea of where he was at that stage in his life."

Victoria, who owns and runs Stanton Miller Recruitment, was at the gym when Nick returned from a business trip early and said he was going to hospital.

The 35-year-old said: "When I walked in the room and saw Nick had been crying, I knew that something was wrong. They sat me down and told me they’d found a lesion the size of a tennis ball on the left side of his brain, in the middle of his frontal lobe. They said it was slow-growing and had probably been there since he was born."

Nick’s surgery and subsequent radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment went so well that he and Victoria decided to move forward with their plans to start a family.

Victoria said: "We just carried on with life as normal and thought we were winning, which is when we decided to go ahead with IVF. Then, in December 2019, when our girls were just six months old, Nick noticed his speech had become slurred.

"We contacted the doctor and ended up going back in after Christmas. I’d had a really weird gut feeling that it was going to be our last Christmas and so organised the biggest celebration by inviting everybody to come and stay with us.

"In March 2020 we found out his tumour had developed into a glioblastoma (GBM) and were told he probably had less than a year to live. In fact, Nick lasted nine months from that GBM diagnosis."

Nick underwent further treatment and was being considered for a clinical trial when he was told his tumour had progressed such that there was nothing more that could be done.

After becoming unconscious at home one night in November 2020, Nick was taken into a local hospice where he died the following morning.

Victoria said: "My parents dropped everything to look after the girls, who were sleeping, and I slept in a bed in the same room as Nick at the hospice, head to toe with his mum.

"I believe the last thing he remembered was being at home with his family. He never really knew he went into the hospice and died at 4am the next morning.

"I came home at 6am, washed and carried on being mummy to our 17-month-old daughters, knowing that daddy wasn’t with us anymore."

Victoria bought Nick a miniature dachshund puppy following his diagnosis. That pup, named Poppy, died six months after Nick did, also to a brain tumour.

"I just couldn’t believe it; they were inseparable and I think she was sent to look after him so went with him," said Victoria, who is now urging people to sign a charity’s petition.

She is campaigning alongside Brain Tumour Research to help its petition to increase research funding reach 100,000 signatures, in the hope of prompting a parliamentary debate.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...