Devastated husband campaigns for life-saving treatment in wife’s memory
A recently widowed husband has released a heart-wrenching video in memory of his late wife.
Jake Levison is an intern at Jewish News
Daniel and Katie Cohen had been together for two years prior to receiving the news that Katie had inoperable and incurable lung cancer.
Katie, who was just 32-years-old when she was diagnosed, died in April this year. However, thanks to the immunotherapy treatment she received, she was able to marry Daniel and enjoy two more years together, which were full of travelling and excitement.
While enjoying the benefits of the life-enhancing drugs, Katie, who worked as an addiction therapist, also spent the final years of her life campaigning to help other individuals with terminal illness gain access to the treatment.
Daniel said: “Katie campaigned for life enhancing drugs to be available to everybody. She believed it was people’s right.”
Now, Daniel has started a campaign of his own in order to promote awareness regarding life-enhancing drugs. He has shared their story as part of a nationwide cancer awareness drive, run by Roche Products and a number of cancer charities.
The 41-year-old spoke in detail about his and his wife’s story in a campaign video released on Tuesday: “We never asked for a prognosis… we didn’t try and determine a timescale of how long we had left.”
Daniel and Katie were instead determined to make use of the time that the immunotherapy provided them with. Daniel said: “Getting extra time was everything.”
The couple got married in May 2015. “The only thing Katie wanted was to be well enough to have her wedding day… we’d been through so much in those months leading up to it. It was an explosion of joy, it was perfect.”
The treatment, which allowed Katie to enjoy her wedding day, also enabled her and Daniel to travel to numerous destinations such as Florida and Iceland, as well as to Jerusalem.
Daniel, a property investor, remembered a moment of their trip to the Western Wall: “We both put our prayers in (the Wall).
“She said to me ‘I don’t have to ask what you prayed for’ and I said ‘I know, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a PlayStation 4!’.
“Those moments of humour remind you that you’re alive.”
He also recalled how he kissed Katie “every morning before I left for work, every day when I came home from work and every night before I went to bed. I told her I loved her each time.”
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