Three years ago Tim Seager was a picture of health, living life to the full as he happily worked as a self-employed builder and enjoyed a loving home life with his wife Dawn.
Three years ago, Tim Seager was a picture of health, living life to the full as he worked as a self-employed builder and enjoyed a loving home life with his wife, Dawn.
However, one of the last photographs of the father of two from Banham, near Diss, shows how his body was ravaged by cancer which claimed his life at the age of 55.
Mr Seager died just two days after Christmas and it is only now that Dawn is able to talk publicly about watching her husband battle with oesophageal and bowel cancer.
But words can only tell half of the story – with Mrs Seager saying that the pictures say more than any words can.
Mrs Seager, 52 said: 'The pictures say everything that could be said. I relive the final years of his life through photographs. You can see the man I love change so dramatically in such a small space of time. But his smile is still the same.'
Mrs Seager wants to share her husband's pictures to highlight the effects of cancer – and in particular oesophageal cancer, sometimes called cancer of the gullet or food pipe, which she said was not widely known.
She said: 'I want to highlight oesophageal cancer and even if one person picks up the paper, reads this and goes to the doctor, I will be happy.'
In April 2012 Mr Seager, then 52, was struggling to swallow food and after two referrals and a operation to remove his tonsils, Mr Seager was diagnosed with cancer.
Chemotherapy managed to reduce the size of the tumour before it was surgically removed at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Mr Seager was in remission, but in August 2014 the sports fan was again struggling. The cancer had returned.
In December he died at home surrounded by his family.
Oesophageal cancer is the 13th most common cancer in adults, and is twice as common in men as in women.
For more information and advice visit www.opa.org.uk
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