Linda Banks

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`·.¸(¨`·.·´ ;¨) ¸.·´
×°× `·.¸.·´ ×°x
to all my gone too soon friends and their loved ones i would first like to thank you all for the
kind words on my mams site, it means so much to me as i hardly visit anymore. i thank you dearly.
hope you all have a lovely christmas and a fab 2009 and i will be thinking of you all as i
always do.
with love always mandy xxxxxxxxxxxx






wed 9th july 08 at 2pm i had a meeting with my mams doctor from the hospital.
my mams biopsy results showed her cancer was lung cancer and was not curable.
she had the cancer for many months and if she had not of got pneumonia then she would of only lasted
a couple of months.
the cancer had spread to her adrenal glands, lots of it in her bones, abdomen and kidneys.
the doctor answered all my questions and was lovely and spent an hour with me and my aunt talking us
through everything.
even if the cancer would of been found straight away my mam would still not of been cured.
i feel more as ease now as i could not of spent the rest of my life wondering about things.
there was no trace of cancer in my mams breasts as first thought and her cervix where clear too.



xxx to all my gts friends xxx

i would like to say a great big thank you to you all
for all your kind words and support and lovely tributes and candles you have left on my mams site.
this site has helped me so much is so many ways and its all down to the lovely people who take time
to think of others whilst they are hurting themselves. it proves one thing, that there are good
people in this world and i have found you. so once again a big thank you to you all. all my love
and hugs always mandy xxxxxxxx
sending all my love to your angels up above xxxxxxxxxx



this site is about my mam linda banks who passed away on 1st aug 07 age 51. my mam lived in
farnley,leeds. my mam was the wife of steve, mam to myself (mandy), steven my brother and had two
grandchildren luke and charlotte which are my children. my mam had two sisters carol and tess and
two brothers alan and terry. my mam passed away to a wicked and cruel killer, cancer.

my mam passed away only four week and five days after we found out she had cancer. it was peacefully
in hospital with all her family round her. she just fell asleep. she was so brave through it all and
never moaned about not having long to live. she was and still is the best mam ever and is missed and
loved so much by all her family. at peace now mam x x x x

my mam was an amazing person who always did right by her family and loved life and never did
anything wrong to anyone. she was a tiny lady only being about 5ft and very slim but she had a
massive heart. my mam had never been ill up untill about 2 and a half year ago when she started
gettin pain in her shoulder. her doctor told her she had frozen shoulder and it would get better in
time. no one ever thought anything of this as you tend to beleive what your doctor tells you. as the
past couple of years went on my mams shoulder got worse and the pain spread to her neck and arm. she
was back and forth to the doctors who just put her on stronger pain killers. it was only a couple of
months before my mam died that the pain got so bad that she had to leave her job and she also found
it hard to continue with her house work. my mam started been sick alot and spent alot of time in
bed. my mam got thinner and thinner as the weeks went by. eventually her doctor sent her to the
chest clinic for an x ray which showed she had nodes on her lungs. by this time my mam was on
morphine at home and still been sick alot. we was all watching her waste away and get sicker by the
minute untill a doctor who came out to see my mam said she needs to be in hospital. once admitted
she then had a scan which showed she had cancer in her breast, lung, liver and kidney and later in
her pelvis. oh my god what a bomb shell. i knew in my own mind even before my mam went to hospital
that she had cancer and it would take her life. dont ask me how i knew but i just did. i remember
the night like it was yesterday june 29th 07 when my dad rang me and told me about the scan results.
i never imagined she would have cancer in so many places. my world fell apart as did all my familys.
we had to keep this horific news from my 84 year old nanna who is my mams mam as she was in hospital
having the top part of her lung removed due to cancer. this was hard as it was my nannas daughter
and she had a rite to know but it would only set her back and we needed her to get better. my mam
spent 3 weeks in hospital and we all knew that there was no treatment for her. how brave my mam was.
i think we was all more scared than she was. she had a biopsy to try find out where the cancer
started but it did not show up enough results. after my mams 3 week stay in hospital she was allowed
home for a few days where she continued to be really ill. she then went back into hospital for
another biopsy which they took from her limph gland on her chest to yet again try and find out where
the cancer started. this stay in hospital was for 3 days then she came home which was on wed 25th
july. by the monday my mam was finding it hard to breath and coughing blood up. i rang the doctor
who sent an ambulance for her and she and my dad went back to hospital. all the time my mam spent in
hospital my dad was always by her side and did everything he could for her. on tues morning my dad
phoned me early and said i think you should come to the hospital as your mam has had a bad night. oh
no i thought this is it i am losing my mam. me and my brother rushed to the hospital to find my mam
with an oxygen mask on. we both broke down. how could this be happening to our mam. we was told
later that day that my mam had pneumonia and it was very serious and that if the antibiotics didnt
start to work she would only have a matter of days. i knew this was the end. all the family turned
up at the hospital to be with my mam and i think in there own mind to say there last goodbyes and
give my mam one last kiss and tell her how much they loved her. it was very heratbraking. i sat all
day till late at night just praying for god to take my mam as i could not stand to watch her so
helpless and gasping for breath hooked up to morphine and not been able to help her. me and my
brother went home that night and my dad and my auntie and uncle stayed the night with my mam. i
returned the next morning with my brother and there had been no change with my mam. i must say that
all the way through this my mam still knew her own mind and knew what she was doing. as my dad and
auntie and uncle had been there all night thay decided to nip home to get a change of clothes. while
they were gone my mam took a turn for the worse, i thought this is it i am watching my mam die and
there is nothing i can do about it. my brother had rang my dad to tell him to hurry back and luckily
he had just arrived at the hospital. i was rubbing my mams head telling her i loved her and that she
was the best mam in the world and telling her it was ok for her to go to sleep, at this point i
thought she only had a couple more breaths in her untill i said to her my dads coming mam. it was
like she had a complete turn around and that she was not going to die after all. her breathing went
back to normal and i thought it had been a false alarm. then my dad rushed into the room and said
everything he wanted to say to mam and he kissed her and she even returned the kiss and then she
just fell asleep. i had ran out of the foom as i was very freaked out by having to watch my mam die
twice, well thats how it felt. i went back into the room after the nurses had taken the drip and
tubes out of my mam and she looked so peaceful and free of pain that it was like a sort of relief,
no more torture, no more feeling helpless and my mam free of the pain she had been in for over 2
years without anyone knowing she had cancer. my mam did not stand a chance with this illness and it
certainly was not fair. i never once heard my mam moan about anything during the last few weeks of
her life and she was just so brave and i dont know how she did it. i have all the love in the world
for you mam and i think you always knew this and i would of give anything in the world for it not to
have been you. all my love forever till we meet again mam xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

just a bad dream by luke banks(grandson)
i go to bed,i wake and it just seemed like a bad dream but then it hits you right in the face,why
could it not of been a bad dream. i have the dream every night,idont know why,i just wish you were
here by my side every day,every night by my side,in the morning in the evening for the rest of my
life. but now your gone i dont know what to say so i will just say how i feel. now your at the gates
of heaven looking down, i am just your little crown now your gone. its like been hit by a train but
worse. every night i look at your picture,break down and ask why he took you, all i want to do is
die. your probably in heaven trying to tell me that one day you will see me and then that broken
heart of mine will fix back together like the pieces of a jigsaw and it wont hurt anymore now i am
back at your door. now all i have left of you is a picture that i have on the wall. when i see that
picture i feel safe,that picture has me in your arms, just a new born child. your smile and your
laugh cheered me up when i was down. well now all i can say is that one day i will see you again and
that will be the day i die. i go to bed,i wake and it just seemed like a bad dream but then it hits
you right in the face,why could it not just of been a bad dream. love you forever nanny, kisses
always luke xxxxxxxxxx