Woman told she was cancer free dies three months after wedding
The family of a woman who died three months after her wedding when she had been told she was cancer free have demanded answers from her doctors.
Leah Debono, 29, died in January, from skin cancer that had spread to numerous pats of her body, including her brain, lungs and bones.
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She had previously overcome a stage-four malignant melanoma in 2013 but finally lost her battle to the disease three months after marrying husband Ben Debono last October.
Her father Lex Dubano told Australia’s 60 minutes: ‘I watched her take her last breath. We watched her go through something like that.
‘You don’t want to ever have to experience that. It’s really cruel.’
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Ms Debono had been getting medical check-ups at least four times a year but doctors did not spot her cancer had returned.
A month after her wedding she collapsed at work and was taken to hospital.
Her GP had previously told her the symptoms she was experiencing were related to stress caused by the wedding.
Ms Debono had also thought she could be pregnant.
‘Leah will always be my wife, and my soulmate,’ Mr Debono, from Central Coast, New South Wales, added.
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Mr Debono sold his home and quit his tradesman job following his wife’s death and has been travelling Australia with her ashes on the same route their honeymoon was meant to take.
He also has a picture of Ms Debono on the passenger seat and is kept company by their dog Turbo.
Every so often he scatters some of her ashes in special locations he thinks she would like.
Mr Debono has managed to raise $40,000 (£30,000) for cancer charity the Melanoma Institute and has warned others to get more than one medical opinion if they’re ill.
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