A husband has spoken of his devastation after losing ‘the bravest woman he ever knew’ to cancer.

Jackie Hayhurst, 49, of Willows Lane, Accrington went in for a routine operation to remove a hernia in April last year, husband Steve said that when surgeons disc overed a tumour his family were ‘completely destroyed’.

The dad of two said: “She went in for a small operation last April as we thought she had a hernia, however when they carried out the operation they found a tumour, our whole world was pulled out from underneath us. We were just destroyed completely.

“They told us that there was nothing they could do, but they did try her on some cutting edge drugs towards the end of last year and we thought we had found a miracle cure.

“Things really started looking up, but then a few weeks before Christmas she had a bad reaction to them.

“When she stopped taking them the cancer came back with vengeance.”

Steve, 52, said that he and his daughter Katie, 23, and son Aaron, 19, had a ‘lovely’ last Christmas with Jackie.

He said: “We had a really good Christmas, loads of family and friends came round, it was just lovely.”

Steve, who works as a HGV driver for Hyndburn Council, had first met Jackie when they were children but they didn’t strike up a relationship until he was 22.

He said: “She lived down the street from me with her family when I was a kid.

She moved away for a few years when I was 12 and then moved back and we started talking again. We used to chat regularly and I would give her a lift to work.

“We started going out when I was 22 and we got married four years later. We would have been married 27 years this year.

“I miss her so much, she was such a lovely woman and very strong, she was the bravest I ever knew.”

Jackie previously worked as a teaching assistant at Broadfield Specialist School and a career at White Ash Brook care home.

Steve said: “At the end of January we were told that none of the treatments had worked and from then on she got worse and worse.

\3We took her to the hospice three weeks ago because she couldn’t sleep and they have better pain killers there, we thought she would come home after a week.

“I went to see her at the chapel of rest on Tuesday, I know she is at peace now, but it is hard.”

Steve’s sister Julie, who also knew Jackie growing up, said: “It came as a sudden shock to everyone. Jackie had a heart of gold and will be missed terribly.” Angela Banner, headteacher at Broadfield Specialist School, said: “Jackie was a lovely woman and a very dedicated member of staff.

“She worked here for nine years and had many friends here.

“We are all saddened by her death.”

Jackie lost her battle with cancer on Friday, February 28, her funeral will be held on Tuesday, March 11 at Accrington Crematorium.