A lasting tribute to my brave Claire

A grieving father has carried out a final task for the daughter he lost to cancer.

Paul Green received a bravery award made posthumously to Claire celebrating the fortitude with which she faced her illness.

Claire died from a brain tumour just two months before her 21st birthday. Her father nominated her for the award.

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This week, Paul visited the House of Commons to pick up the award and certificate, and made a speech to an audience of 60.

He told them: "This is truly an emotional time for me, and I am deeply honoured to be here today to collect this Try Angle award on behalf of my daughter Claire who was suddenly taken from me after putting up such a brave and courageous fight with cancer.

"I am so very proud of my daughter and I cannot tell you how much this award means to me as her father."

Paul, 46, received the award from MP Roger Gale, who is chairman of the Try Angle Awards Foundation. Also there was Jo Burns from BBC Radio Kent, and founding trustee Bill Butler.

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Paul said of the ceremony: "I had mixed emotions. Obviously it was quite a painful experience because it brought back everything - how we lost Claire. But there was also a sense of how the bravery and courage which she displayed now held strong recognition."

Having suffered with headaches, Claire was diagnosed with glioblastoma in February 2004, and passed away on January 30th last year.

"It was 17 months ago - to the very day," said Paul, of Kinver Lane.

"I count the days. It is the silly things that you miss the most ... she used to text me messages and things, or write to me, and ring me up. Those little things, although they don't seem it at the time, but when she is not there it is surprising how much you miss that contact."

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Claire was a local girl "born and bred" who went to Pebsham primary school followed by Bexhill High.

"I think she needed pushing at school now and again," said Paul.

"She was a typical teenager. Then once she got to the age of 16, she fell madly in love and her education nearly went out of the window."

Claire took her GCSE's however, and passed them. She left home to live in Watford to be nearer her boyfriend, but the relationship fizzled out.

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Claire began working in Burger King and was working her way up to management level.

She had just taken her qualifications and was happy in a new relationship when her illness developed, and she was admitted to hospital suffering violent headaches.

After an operation at the Royal Free Hospital she received radiotherapy, chemotherapy and steroids, which dramatically altered her appearance.

Paul has a photograph of her at a family wedding six months later, sitting in a wheelchair dressed in her bridesmaid outfit.

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"By this time, she was having difficulty with the walking as well. She was so pleased she succeeded in walking down the aisle that afterwards she cried because she had achieved it."

After the operation, Paul and Claire's mother Sarah were told that she had just two years to live.

"In fact, we only had 11 months. We didn't get the full two years. Halfway through that, the tumour sent her totally blind. Everything was complete darkness, she couldn't see a thing."

The remainder of Claire's life was spent in and out of St Wilfrid's Hospice in Eastbourne. She was finally admitted at the end of December 2004 and spent her last two months there.

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Paul once worked in the nursing profession and says that though he looked after terminally ill patients, he never saw anyone cope as well as Claire.

"To start with, she was just normal Claire. Even when she lost her eyesight, she would chat to you and she wanted her Westlife CDs put on, and she would listen to them and sing along.

"During the last few days you could talk to her and she would acknowledge you were there, but you didn't get any reply.

"I don't know if that was due to the illness itself, or the morphine she was on at the time. She just accepted it, it was just one of those things, and that's it.

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"While she was staying at her mother's in Hailsham, she had a carer come in to help. She arranged one day for the carer to take her to the solicitor, without our knowledge. The carer took her to the solicitor where she made her will, organised her funeral, and met all the costs as well. And we knew nothing about it."

"I wanted to show people how brave she was."

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