Denis John Hatton

Hello Den, it’s nearly 2 years since you fell asleep and it hurts more than ever miss you love Christine xxx

My Uncle Den was the most beautiful, kind, brave & unselfish person I ever knew and will ever know. He was only 19 years old when one of his older sister’s Anne died at the age of 33 yrs. Anne sadly and suddenly passed away of a brain haemorrhage. She left 3 children, Myself 6yrs, my younger brother 4yrs & sister age 3yrs at the time. Our Nan (Age 60yrs at the time) and Uncle Den took us to live with them, my Dad also came with us. We had another uncle John who lived there too. My Dad and us three shared a room for a while until my dad got his own flat. When my Dad moved out into his new flat, we stayed living with Nan & Den. We would stay with our dad once a week. Three years later our Dad died, he had a tragic accident and was killed by a express train. The unconditional love and the happy childhood me and my siblings had was all down to Nan & Den. We never had much money.... but we had all the love in the world!! We never once felt like we had missed out, that was a testament to Den & Nan. When we had all grown up, we all moved away to work. One day in March 1995 we had a phone call whilst working from Den, he told us our Nan had a stroke and was in hospital. Den told us to try not to worry. Our boss allowed us to leave, he even arranged a coach to take us all home. We all arrived home the day after, but sadly our Nan died a week later. Den had always been there for his mum, and missed her enormously. This was another huge loss as in 1977 Den had lost his dad to cancer age 17yrs. Den has suffered so much loss and still not 40yrs old. 10 month later he lost another sister Marie to Cancer February 1996. Since then in 2007 he lost his brother John who had an amputation of his leg, this was due to poorly controlled Diabetes. He also cared for him, with the help from me & my sister, until his death. In all this time Den never went out drinking, he never even smoked. His whole life was about us three, and our children 4 between me and my siblings (who all loved Den so much & Den loved them of course). He loved music & movies. He had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed!!! Sadly out of the blue on December 6th 2019 he was diagnosed with MDS a rare form of blood cancer it is a form of leukaemia. He was given 18 months to live. Dens options weren’t looking good. The only chance of a cure was stem cell transplant. Hopefully if he would be fit enough he could be a candidate for stem cell transplant. The chance of getting to stem cell transplant after intensive chemotherapy is only around 5%. If Den was to choose the road of transplant he would need to undergo intensive chemotherapy with hospital admission. Den got the chance of a cure by The Royal Liverpool Hosptial in February 4th 2020. We all felt like Den had been given a fighting chance. After many talks with consultants. Den with our full support chose to take the chance of a cure, knowing the risk of death. He started his treatment full of hope on March 6th 2020, he was doing amazing he completed 16 days of chemotherapy with ease. Sadly Den started getting infections, he sadly lost his fight on April 5th 2020 age 59yrs. It is one year tomorrow March 5th 2021 that Den went into hospital and started his treatment 6th March. We are all struggling to live our lives without him. I just want the world to know we have lost a true angel. Thank you Uncle Den we owe you our life, nothing will be the same without you. Thanks to you we have the love and strength to keep going. You are my inspiration when things are unbearable. God rest your beautiful soul. Give our love to everyone up there in heaven. All our love C, R, J, M, S, C, N, M-A & J xxxxxxxxx