A brave, terminally-ill father, 36, died in his wife’s arms after saying ‘I love you’, two years after being diagnosed with liver and oesophageal cancer.
Wayne Barton from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire was told by doctors in June 2016 that his condition was incurable.
Then last March, Mr Barton and his now wife Lisa, 37, were warned they were facing eviction along with their daughter Bryony May, five.
Wayne Barton, 36, died last month in his wife’s arms after a two-year battle with cancer
Mr Burton, pictured here in November with his wife Lisa at their wedding, had to bring the date forward because of his rapidly deteriorating condition
Mrs Burton, pictured with the couple’s daughter Bryony-May, five, said her husband had lost the ability to speak in his last days but still managed to say ‘I love you’ before passing away
During his final days, Mr Barton started losing his speech in his final days and was only able to say ‘I love you’ to Lisa, who held him with his mother and brother as he died at 8pm on Saturday, January 27.
Now Mrs Barton, who had cared for her husband during his illness will bury him on Valentine’s Day.
She said: ‘He just went. It was me, his mum and brother and it was so sad to see but he was in no more pain, it just went away at once.
‘I was just talking to him telling him that I hope I made him proud and that Bryony-May will be OK. We were all saying “we are here” and telling each other “I love you” a lot.
‘He is just my handsome man, I love him to bits. Bryon-May was the apple of his eye and I see so much of him in her now, she will carry on his legacy.
‘His funeral is on Valentine’s Day, there just wasn’t any other day available until mid-March and I wasn’t going to wait that long.
Mr Barton was diagnosed with liver and oesophageal cancer in April 2016 and was told the condition was incurable two months later
‘But I feel like this is his way of spending one last Valentine’s Day with me.’
On the night he died, Mrs Barton stayed next to her husband admitting she ‘just couldn’t leave him’.
Bryony-May, who was asleep in the next room at the time, was taken to her grandmother’s house to keep her from seeing her father’s body.
After the undertakers took him away the next day, Mrs Barton led Bryony-May into his room to see his empty bed and told her ‘I’m so sorry, daddy is gone’.
The five-year-old has been ‘distraught’ asked Mrs Barton: ‘Please can you find new medicine to bring him back’ and ‘why did they take him away?’
‘Last Sunday was the first night she slept comfortably since then,’
Mrs Barton said: ‘I need to be strong for her, she needs me. I tried to protect her as much as I could and took her to school but she saw a lot and saw her dad very sick.
‘She would help me look after Wayne and would put gloves on for him, she just wanted to help her daddy. On his last day she sat with me and stroked his arm.
‘Even though he couldn’t speak I know he knew who was there..’
Despite his terminal illness, Mr Barton took Lisa to stay in the junior suite of a Hilton hotel in east London last March, where he then asked her to ‘do the honour of being my wife’.
Mrs Burton said her daughter Bryony May has struggled since her father’s death in January
The couple had hoped to tie the knot in time but their wedding dreams were seemingly dashed after an eviction notice in the same month put them under the constant threat of homelessness.
Despite Broxbourne Council promising the family a two-bedroom house in June, Mrs Burton had to keep all their belonging’s packed in boxes as they waited four more months for new accommodation.
They could have been moved into temporary accommodation at a moment’s notice and Lisa described the wedding as a ‘nice dream’ while she struggled to care for Wayne and raise Bryony-May.
She told the Mercury in July: ‘I have a prolapsed disc in my back and often sleep on the couch to give Wayne space in our small flat. It’s a struggle to go up the stairs to our flat.
The couple got married in Hanbury Manor who hosted their wedding for free
‘When I am not looking after him I am on the school run and trying to raise my girl. This stress is making everything so much worse.’
After reading about her plight in the Mercury and in the national news, Hanbury Manor stepped forward to host their wedding for free.
A handful of charities also offered to help with various parts of the wedding and Lisa said it was an ‘amazing day’.
‘I am so glad we got married in time. Bryony-May looked like a little princess and she got to see her mum and dad so happy,’ she said.
‘Wayne told my dad how proud he is of me and that I am amazing, that really meant a lot to me.
‘In sickness and in health – those words mean the world to me.’
The wedding, originally pencilled in for December 30, had to be pushed forward to November 19 as doctors feared his condition would be too bad by Christmas.
As predicted, Mr Burton’s condition took a turn for the worse and he was readmitted to hospital on December 27.
A few days later he was told it was now just a matter of weeks.
Mrs Burton said: ‘When we told him he said he wanted to spend his last days at home and not in a hospice and I wanted to look after him myself too.
‘He was in complete denial, right up until his last breath.
‘He’s 36, he was on so many painkillers and drugs and he was so poorly that he couldn’t even drink water by himself anymore.
‘He must have been wondering “what’s happening to me?”
‘But the strength and positivity of that man was incredible and now he lives on in his daughter. I see so much of him in her through her expressions and in the way she acts.’
Mr and Mrs Burton, who would have been celebrating 11 years together this May, were immediately drawn to each other when they first met.
Mrs Burton was working behind the bar at the Black Horse pub in Enfield when she saw ‘just a fit guy’ Wayne and the pair hit it off straight away.
They moved in together three months later and lived an active life as a couple, with regular trips abroad and frequent gatherings with close friends.
The couple had their ‘best holiday ever’ on a 2011 trip to Mexico, when Lisa found out she was pregnant with Bryony-May.
They had always dreamed of going back to Cancun again, this time with Bryony-May and Lisa has not given up hope on one day taking her daughter to swim with the dolphins there.
Lisa told the Hertfordshire Mercury she has ‘no idea’ what the future holds for them but said for now she is taking it ‘one day at a time’.
On Monday, Wayne’s equipment and special bed were removed from the house and Lisa has not decided what will happen with the rest of Wayne’s belongings.
She said: ‘It wasn’t nice seeing his equipment go, I want to keep a lot of his things for Bryony-May and I’ll want to keep hold of a lot too.
‘His room will be redecorated now and Bryony-May will move there.’
Lisa has found Bryony-May some unlikely comfort after coming across a post on Facebook advertising a kitten for sale.
She bought the pet just days before Wayne passed away and she has been a ‘huge help’ for Bryony-May.
The cat is ‘the spitting image’ of Wayne’s old cat, Mimi, and was named after her.
Such is her resemblance that Wayne thought Lisa had brought him his cat back and he even caressed Mimi with his cheek just like he used to.
A popular man, Wayne was often visited by friends and family in his final weeks and was swamped by messages of support.
He supported Spurs and enjoyed spending afternoons in the pub with his friends to watch their games.
Lisa described him as an ‘active and masculine man’ and said he spent a lot of time in the gym and one day wanted to be an MMA fighter.
She said: ‘He was a lovely dad. He would spend so much time with Bryon-May and sing with her. We would go out as a family all the time.
‘Our lives completely changed when he became ill and he could only manage going on a walk. It must have been awful for him, a 36-year-old not to be able to spend time with his little girl.’
Lisa, whose mum died when she was five-months pregnant with Bryony-May on Christmas Eve in 2011, added she ‘likes to believe’ in life after death and is happy Wayne is no longer in pain.
‘I know that he is in peace now and between him and my mum I know they will protect me, my girl and my son.’