'We only had eight weeks to process dad was dying'

Amy Fahey, 28, says she wants to raise more awareness of pancreatic cancer after the death of her father Michael, 66, in March 2025

A woman whose father died of pancreatic cancer just eight weeks after being diagnosed said she wished she had had longer to spend with him.

Michael Fahey died aged 66 in March this year after being diagnosed at the end of December 2024 through a routine blood test.

Now his daughter Amy, 28, from Burgess Hill in West Sussex, says she wants to raise more awareness of the disease to try to lead to research breakthroughs.

Amy told BBC South East: "When people have longer you have more time to process it. When you only have eight weeks you are still processing that they are sick, and then they are gone."

She added: "Dad was a very kind soul. He was always putting everyone else ahead of himself.

"It's hard when you are there every day of the journey seeing the person you love so much slowly fade away."

Michael, a trained chef, was a single parent to Amy and her brother, also called Michael, from 2002.

Amy said she was "best friends" with her father from the moment she was born.

In December 2024, Michael went for a routine blood test having suffered a stroke in 2023 which, after further tests, led to him being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Amy, her father and her brother, also called Michael

Having been diagnosed at the end of the year, and with Amy having flown to Thailand for a month-long holiday, Michael waited to tell her of his diagnosis until after New Year's Eve.

After suffering a second stroke while in hospital, Michael became too unwell to tolerate treatment, and spent two weeks in a hospice in Sussex before he died on 2 March, Amy's birthday.

Amy added: "By the time he got into the hospice he wasn't aware that he was dying. He was so gone mentally that he was just so happy to be out of hospital.

"It's the hardest thing to tell someone you love they are going to a hospice and they don't understand they are dying."

'Symptoms can be vague'

More than half of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within three months of diagnosis, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Common symptoms of pancreatic cancer can include indigestion, back or tummy pain and unexpected weight loss, but these can often be mistaken as being caused by other conditions.

Nicci Murphy, specialist nurse with Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: "The symptoms can be very vague.

"It's really important to diagnose it early because that gives patients the best chance to get the treatment they need."