“Everything was going really well, and we were about to sell both our flats and buy a house together when he started getting food stuck in his throat,” says Lou.

Steve underwent a number of tests and at the end of February 2024 he was diagnosed with oesophagus cancer. Six weeks later he was told it was inoperable and given 12-18 months to live.

“It felt so cruel because we were so happy and Steve looked and felt fine.”

As you might expect from a man who’d spent a lifetime walking towards danger and crises, Steve refused to take a backwards step when faced with this life-threatening challenge and within days Steve had proposed to Lou.

“While it was a dreadful time, Steve turned it into a positive. He said we needed to get married quickly and the wife of a colleague of his arranged everything.”

“Seven weeks later, on 25 May, we got married in Whitstable – our happy place – with a vintage fire engine, a guard of honour and 140 friends and family. It was the best day of our lives, along with our children being born.”

Just a week before the wedding Steve started the first of eight courses of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. In July at his ‘final roll call with the fire service, colleagues, commissioners, friends and family from across London were them to thank him for his service.

“It was a whirlwind year, trying to fit in as much as we possibly could. I’d said to Steve that I would be led by him and be by his side whatever he chose to do. So, we went to stay with his brothers and sister all over the country, had holidays, went out for meals with family and friends and he also went to Tenerife with a bunch of colleagues to celebrate his retirement.”

Steve’s resilience saw him able to enjoy Christmas with all the family and celebrate New Year back in Whitstable.

Then, in early January his condition deteriorated, and doctors discovered it had spread to two cells at the base of his brain and further tests revealed he had malignant meningitis

“He was a fighter in every sense of the word and did all he could to keep training and eat and drink healthily and wouldn’t think about what might come. But suddenly I became his 24-hour carer overnight.”

A referral to St Christopher’s followed soon after and a nurse from the hospice visited and decided Steve, who’d already been asking about going to the hospice for respite, now needed to be admitted.

“We went onto Rugby ward,” Lou remembers, “And we spent three weeks there. I was there 24/7 and it became our home, and the staff were our family. It’s hard to put into words how incredible they were. I’ve never been so grateful. It is the most dignified, compassionate and loving place. If you have to go through an experience like we did, then St Christopher’s is the place to be, it’s like a five-star hotel that’s full of love and care.”

As well as heaping praise on the ever attentive and caring nursing team, Lou said she, Steve and the family really appreciated the support of the art therapists, social workers and masseurs who were on hand to complement the clinical care throughout that period.

Despite the chill February weather, Lou and Steve enjoyed trips out into the St Christopher’s garden, at first in a wheelchair and then in his bed, including a visit from Steve’s dog Baxter.

“We felt so grateful that we could get him outside into the beautiful garden surrounded by his family.”

“I’d feared he wouldn’t make it to Valentine’s Day, but he did and at midnight we shared cards.”

“Two days later, Steve said he wanted to go to a coffee shop. We knew that wasn’t possible but that we might be able to get him out into the garden one last time with the help of a health care assistant and a porter. It was freezing and so I went and asked if we might be able to take Steve in his bed to the hospice café.  As always, they bent over backwards to make our wish a reality.”

“The next day, I was lying on the bed with him in my arms and he passed away with all the family there. It was the worst possible thing that could happen, but it was in a wonderful place, we were surrounded by the people we loved and the staff were amazing.”

Lou fondly remembers tearful hugs with the nurses and a real sense of being given the time to be with Steve before they moved out of their ‘home’ of the last three weeks.

“It wasn’t just the care and attention they gave Steve, but also me. I was treated with the same care and compassion as a patient.”

More than 350 people packed in to Steve’s funeral and donations to St Christopher’s from friends, family and former colleagues amounted to £3,500.

For Lou and her family this wasn’t their first experience of the hospice.

“My grandad Robert Clouston, died in St Christopher’s in December 1999 with me and my sister holding his hand,” remembers Lou. “Grandad told me to spread the word about the place.”

She’s certainly done her best to honour his request, completing the London Marathon in 2009 having never even run a 5km, and the family participated in swimathons and were regular visitors to the St Christopher’s Christmas bazaar.

Then, just six weeks after Steve’s funeral, Lou, daughter Freya, sister Ali and her husband Paul, and a group of friends completed the 11-mile course at this year’s Fun Walk, raising another £2,000-plus.

Steve’s fire service colleagues at Lewisham have also been extremely active in their support for St Christopher’s. A ping-pong tournament raised £550, a golf day in August at High Elms Golf Club is planned and Steve’s best friend Nick Green has signed up to ride Palace to Palace in September on Steve’s bike.

“Steve was so touched by the care we received at St Christopher’s, he explicitly asked us to do as much as we possibly could to raise as much as we could because he was so grateful.”