Goodbye Dad

It is with great sadness that I am writing this blog. My Dad, Terry Carroll, passed away on the 31st August following a cardiac arrest on Helston Bowling Green on the 24th August. We take great comfort in the fact that he was doing what he loved.

Dad was taken to hospital by air ambulance and had his heart restarted, however, his brain was without oxygen for too long and we were told by the doctors that he was very unlikely to survive.  

After three days with no response from dad, the doctor introduced us to the donor nurse. As you know, all of my family are advocates for organ donation, but we never thought for a minute that we would be on the other side of that conversation. Dad had been on the donor register for many years, long before I was unwell, and had made his wishes very clear, therefore we said yes.  

The fact that dad wished to donate his organs meant that there was a delay before the doctors took dad off his ventilator, 12 hours or so.  We discovered that dad would need to pass away within three hours of being taken off the ventilator in order to donate.

Donation wasn't to be as Dad stayed in a coma and his heart continued to beat and his lungs continued to breath for a further two days.  It was an agonising couple of days sat by dad's bedside at Treliske.

On the 31st August at approximately 2:55am, dad passed peacefully away.  He will be greatly missed by everyone, including his partner Jen, his children Jonathan, Andrew and I, his grandchildren Jasmine, Andrew, Jago and Trystan along with many other friends as dad was a very well known character in Helston.

There are so many people who I would like to thank, those who helped dad on the bowling green, the paramedics and air ambulance crew, everyone on the critical care ward at Treliske (especially Clayt who was with dad the majority of the time) the donor nurse Brian, Jen's children Andrew Ewan and Susan Dixon who have been there for us the whole time, Trev for being there for me, Frugi for their support and everyone else for their kind words, flowers, cards etc.  

Dad was so proud of his children and grandchildren and loved telling everyone about us. He always got behind any fundraising I was doing along with getting his two great passions behind me (Helston Bowling Club and The Blue Anchor). In fact only in March he had arranged with the organisers of Helstonbury for a £1,000 donation towards my next World Transplant Games. 

Dad's funeral is taking place at 12 noon on Friday 16th September at Treswithian Downs Crematorium followed by a wake at the Blue Anchor in Helston. We would love to for anyone who knew dad to come and remember him with us. 

Rest in peace dad, you will always be in our hearts xx