A Cancer Survivor's Journey: Love, Loss, and Hope

EXCLUSIVE: 'I survived gruelling cancer journey - only to lose my fiancée to same illness' Dad Brett Harman, 35, tragically lost his fiancée to cancer only a few years after battling the disease himself - but says it is only ever 'part of the story' of someone's life A dad who survived cancer only to lose his wife to it a few years later has told the Mirror how he wants people’s views on the illness to change. Brett Harman - a professional voice actor from Spalding, South Lincolnshire - was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 27 after suffering from back pain and persistent infections, forcing him to undergo aggressive chemotherapy. Within just four months he was in remission, and his cancer has not returned since - but sadly this would not the final time the disease impacted his life. In 2021, his fiancée Hannah Stinson discovered she had sarcoma while pregnant with their daughter, Summer. Their baby girl was born healthy a few weeks premature - but two years later Hannah passed away aged 29, just a fortnight before her 30th birthday. READ MORE : 'I thought it was just menopause, then doctors said I had months to live'READ MORE : Woman joked she had an Adam's apple - then got devastating diagnosis Now left to look after his daughter alone, 35-year-old Brett might surprise some people when he says his own leukaemia diagnosis in 2015 is the "best bad thing to ever happen to him" - because it has given him the "resilience" to tackle everything that's happened since. Looking back to how it felt at first in 2015, the former teacher told the Mirror: "In the first few months, it hit me hard. "I did have a very much a 'Why me?' attitude - I just had to drop everything, and I had to get into hospital literally the day after being diagnosed to be straight on chemotherapy. So it was a very quick transition from literally working in a classroom one day to being in a hospital the next. It was a big hit to my life - and my outlook on what the future could look like." Thankfully, treatment proved successful. And as the years passed and Brett returned to work, remission meant he could once again plan his life and his future with Hannah, his sweetheart from their teenage years, when they worked together at Domino's Pizza. In 2021, there was delight for couple as Hannah fell pregnant with their daughter - but a few months in, she noticed an unusual lump on her leg. Scans and blood samples showed it was BCOR sarcoma (a cancer of the soft tissue), and thoughts immediately turned to how both the baby and mother would make it through pregnancy safely. He explained: "The biggest issue for us was delivering that baby and whether she could still deliver our baby through chemotherapy. Fortunately, the incredible team that were able to administer that chemo and treatment and say that she could still hopefully go full term. She nearly went full term - the baby had to be induced in December, and he should have been around sort of late January, February. "When baby was born, the focus was on getting Hannah better. And she did get better. She got into remission and after one more operation on her leg to remove all the dead tissue, she was able to get back to normality. She was a nurse on an elderly ward - she knew all too well what it was like, all the treatment and being in that sort of environment. And she handled it beautifully." The couple were in the midst of planning their wedding and eyeing a move to a bigger house in summer 2024 when Hannah fell ill on a shift at work with crippling abdominal pains - and soon after, tests revealed that the cancer had returned. Doctors were upfront, telling the couple that the cancer was now so aggressive that it would be a matter of lengthening her life, rather than reversing its course. Hannah passed away from complications and sepsis on October 31 the same year. Recalling her brave fight against cancer, he shared: "She was the most incredibly brave person you'll ever meet. She never moaned about her treatment or her aches and pains once. I did when I went through it, but she never did. It was remarkable. So brave." The very last thing Hannah told Brett before she went on a ventilator was "look after our little girl" - and it's a promise he says he spends every day of his life trying to keep. He added: "I have to now be a single dad and look after a four-year-old, and do all the things not only a dad does but what a mum does. "But it's made me grow in character for sure. I feel very proud of myself. I'm over a year now. Over a year since she passed. And, if I could give any advice to anyone grieving like myself, it just, it gets easier. It does. At the very early stage, you don't think you'll get through it. "The one thing that spurred me on was not only my tenacity and how stubborn I am, but was that I had to give everything for my daughter and give her the best life possible. I've got a promise I have to keep. And that is my primary focus in life. "We've both managed to adapt and create this nice little friendship and lifestyle where it's just us two. I feel like we've got it off to a knack now. The timings, how I get her dressed, what she likes to eat... we just seem to be very in sync. So it seems to be working beautifully." Brett supports his family through his escape room company and voice acting work, having changed careers away from teaching during the Covid pandemic. He has worked on computer games and a number of TV adverts, and currently has over 174,000 followers on TikTok under the name Brettflix, where he shares his latest takes on the world of film and television. One recent project he's taken part in is the Part of the Story campaign, which reimagines Sherlock Holmes navigating a cancer diagnosis to challenge the narrative that the disease defines a person's identity. Brett narrates a new audiobook titled 'The Adventure of the Silent Hiss', performing the voices of both Holmes and Dr Watson to explore how the detective's life and relationships are affected when he is viewed primarily as a patient. Explaining what motivated him to get involved, he said: "I resonate so much with Sherlock's tenacity and his outlook on life, and that he will not let anything define or control him. I think that's why it's important to sort of de-stigmatise, desensitise this word 'cancer.' I don't want my daughter growing up thinking that if you do get cancer that it is the end, because it's not."