Former England youth footballer Ben Cull tragically died at the age of just 24 after a brave battle with cancer.
Ben, who represented England's U16 side, was forced to retire at age 17 after he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer known as Ewing's sarcoma. The diagnosis left him needing a knee replacement and ended his hopes of a career in football even after he got the all-clear from doctors in July 2017.
However, the cancer returned with a routine lung scan shortly before Ben and his partner Daisy Morrison were set to visit Paris to celebrate his 21st birthday in 2019, finding an abnormality in his lungs that turned out to be a tumor.
He was told by doctors at the time that less than five percent of patients with his type of cancer live longer than five years after their diagnosis, and the couple later set up a GoFundMe, which raised over £25,000 to allow the couple to fulfill some of Ben's "bucket list ideas".
The former Southampton academy prospect also raised over £20,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Daisy shared the tragic news of Ben's passing on social media just weeks after the couple got engaged when he proposed while in the hospital.
In a heartbreaking post on Instagram, Daisy wrote, "The hardest goodbye. Yesterday I lost my whole life—my fiance, my soulmate, my person, my entire world. I always hoped and prayed that this day would never, ever come. True heartbreak is real; my heart physically hurts, and I've never felt pain like this.
"My mom and dad couldn't of picked a better soulmate for me; they adored you, they think of you as a son, and they are hurting so bad right now. They say you go for someone like your father, and god, you were like dad, two peas in a pod, the best of friends. I couldn't of wished for a stronger bromance.
"You fought until the very end, my darling, I know you did absolutely everything you could to stay, and despite suffering so badly, you kept going, which I will be forever grateful for. You never gave up; God just had his own plans. One thing I can say for sure is that we made the most of every single second.
"You and I both said we'd rather of met our soulmate and had less time than lived a whole lifetime without each other. You were the reason I smiled every day, my reason to wake up, and the first person I'd turn to with a problem. The person I felt safe next to every night, the person who made a whole room laugh—you were my reason for it all; you gave me a purpose.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0