Dad with terminal cancer determined to walk daughter down aisle

A Lancashire dad with incurable cancer has said he is determined to walk down the aisle with his daughter on her wedding day.

Jason Walker, 57, of Longridge, was diagnosed with blood cancer 12 years ago after having symptoms of back pain and blurred vision. It has since spread and he has been told his illness is terminal.

After two stem cell transplants and more than a decade of treatment, Jason has begun a clinical trial at the Christie hospital in Manchester in the hope he can fulfil his dream of walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding in Montenegro.

"Terminal cancer won't stop me, I want to be well enough to walk my beautiful daughter down the aisle and give her away," he said.

"I need to get through this as I'm giving her away."

"When I found out I had cancer I was only 45," father-of-two Jason said. "It was just absolute disbelief and shock.

"I couldn't believe it was happening to me. I called my wife and then I broke down."

Jason said his children, Abbey and Oliver, were aged 16 and 20 at the time - and he realised he had no option but to do everything he could to battle the disease.

"The realisation hits that it is you who is going through it and you've got no option but to do everything within your power to beat it," he said.

"I'm just going to plough through."

After chemotherapy, Jason went into remission in August 2014 and was able to have a stem cell transplant in 2015.

"I got back playing squash got back circuit training, loving life completely forgetting I had cancer," he said. "Life carried on as normal."

But, in 2019, Jason was told he had cancer for a second time, leading him to having a second stem cell transplant.

"I had the news on New Years Eve," Jason said. "But, because of Covid in 2020, I felt like at least I wasn't missing out on much."

After a further five years in remission, Jason, who runs a kitchen painting business, and has continued working throughout much of his treatment, noticed spongy lumps developing on his head.

Tests confirmed in November last year the cancer had returned and it was incurable.

Despite this, Jason said his "inbuilt positivity" has helped him to "crack on" in the face of adversity.

"I've just got this inbuilt positivity," he said. "I thought I'm not going to let this knock me back.

"I thought, I'm only young, I don't know why I've got it, but I have so I'll have to crack on and do the best I can do with it."

Jason said he thinks his blood cancer journey has inspired his daughter's career path.

Abbey, now 28 and due to get married next year, has worked at the Christie since 2020 - and is currently a clinical trials project manager working on lymphoma and myeloma.

"It was a vested personal interest for her because her dad had it," Jason said.

And since Jason's most recent diagnosis, there is one particular date in the diary he said he is determined to be fit enough for.

"Abbey's wedding is in Montenegro next May and I am giving her away," Jason said. "So hopefully I can be kept on the right side of healthy until after then."

Jason is currently the first patient recruited to the TOPICAL clinical trial and, in July, he started 14 cycles of treatment, while continuing to work.

TOPICAL is led by the Christie NHS Foundation Trust and will also take place at five other NHS hospitals across the UK. About 30 patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant multiple myeloma are expected to take part.

He said after an initial round of treatment in late 2025 left him feeling too weak to climb the stairs - he feels positive about being part of something that could change cancer treatment.

"I feel blessed to be on the trial," he said. "It's like I've won something better than the lottery.

"If it works it could be something which could improve treatment not just for me but for other people living with myeloma."

With Abbey's wedding fast approaching, Jason added: "I've got some hope here, and that's all you cling on to.

"I've been fighting this disease for 12 years - knowing how to stay strong."

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