She never stopped fighting, a Vernon man said of his wife’s battle against tongue cancer.
Crystal Rocan, 36, was first diagnosed in late January with tongue cancer. A month later, a PET scan confirmed the cancer metastasized to her lymph nodes.
Tilo Faget, Crystal’s fiancé, said their four-year-old twins were the driving force behind her ongoing battle that ended Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020.
“She endured tremendous pain and suffering for a year, the kind no one should ever (endure), let alone at the age of 36,” Faget wrote in a GoFundMe campaign, which was launched in March and has raised nearly $17,000.
Faget, owner of Vernon Tech Solutions, met Rocan online and the two had their first date at a Coldstream lookout more than 10 years ago.
“She won’t celebrate Halloween with me and this girls this year,” Faget wrote, noting it’s Rocan’s favourite holiday. “She won’t be seeing our girls grow up, going to school, practice gymnastics, see what they become and enjoy them.
“That’s all she wanted to do and she was robbed of this despite everything.”
Faget describes Rocan as kind and caring and “the most precious soul mankind has ever seen.”
“I am broken, a part of me left with her,” he wrote. “This isn’t right, this was not supposed to end like this. A year of sacrifice, suffering, filled with pain and so many tears were supposed to be traded in for life, for us, for our girls.”
READ MORE: Fundraiser kick-started for Vernon woman battling tongue cancer
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Caitlin.clow@vernonmorningstar.com
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