The devastated family of a popular Spalding driving instructor are hoping that some good can come from his shocking and untimely death at the age of 46.
Mark Cherry died on Saturday, just two months after being told he had stomach cancer.
The diagnosis followed a spell of weight loss coupled with heartburn and indigestion, which began around July. Even though he went to his GP three times in as many weeks as his condition worsened, cancer was not suspected.
However, an endoscopy on September 1 revealed the shocking truth and scale of the disease. Treatment quickly proved futile.
Mark’s widow, Clare, said: “Because of his age and general all-round fitness, stomach cancer wasn’t seen as being the most likely diagnosis.”
She added: “We want other people to notice the signs and not take no for an answer from the GP just because of their age and the fact they are otherwise in good health.”
Mark, of Abbots Way, was taken to Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough on Friday and passed away just 24 hours later, with several members of his large family at his bedside.
Clare said: “On Wednesday, we were told it was a matter of months, on Thursday we were told it was weeks and on Friday it was days. Then he died on Saturday.
“He did have one round of chemotherapy but it didn’t do any good.
“He had been told that they could give him some treatment but the cancer never went away and took hold of him.”
Through his driving school Mark One, which he began in 1997, Mark helped more than 500 people pass their test.
He played basketball for the former South Lincs Dragons and snooker for Spalding Services.
Clare described her husband as a funny and very patient man, and a devoted dad to their children Beth (15) and James (11).
“He made us laugh all the time,” she said. “He’d been joking, telling Beth to save up for driving lessons – and now that’s what will actually happen.”
Nephew Craig Fitter will drive Mark’s learner car behind the hearse to the funeral service, which is at Spalding’s St Mary and St Nicolas Parish Church on Friday, November 20 at 1.15pm. That will be followed by a private cremation service at Surfleet and a get-together at Spalding Services Club afterwards, at which everybody is welcome.
Mark also leaves siblings Nigel, Paul and Eamonn Cherry, Colleen Fitter, Tracy Philpott and Yvonne Doades.
