The family of a "great" dad who was told he had two years to live organised his and partner's wedding in just 48 hours.
Michael Moriarty, from Walton, was initially diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and his initial concerns were dismissed as haemorrhoids. But the 37-year-old was given the devastating news Christmas Eve in 2020 he had stage four cancer and had tumours in his bowel, liver and lung.
The dad-of-two began a series of gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy sessions to reduce the size of the tumours. But in February this year, Michael was told "the news nobody wants to hear" that doctors believed he had only two years to live.
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Friends and family of Michael rallied around the 37-year-old to raise money for private treatment. With the fundraising money, Michael had a medication not available on the NHS and five sessions of radiotherapy.
Michael's mum Bernie said the tumour in his lung had reduced, the one his bowel was stable but the tumour in his liver had increased. The family are now waiting to see what the next steps are in Michael's treatment when he sees his oncologist on September 20.
Speaking to the ECHO, Bernie said: "He has just finished the radiotherapy. He had five blasts of radiotherapy on the bowel tumour. He had been in a tremendous amount of pain and struggles with his mobility and struggles to walk and what you have. With the last bit of fundraising money we have had private treatment in the Clatterbridge Centre, with the drug which was not available on the NHS we have paid for.
"So he had that, since that has finished Michael had a scan which showed a reduction in the tumour on the lung, the bowel tumour was stable and the liver tumour had increased, so it was a bit bitter sweet really."
She added: "He has an appointment on September 20 with the oncologist, so we will know more then on what the steps will be, what treatment we can go ahead with then and after that whether we can continue to pay for this other treatment, as it is doing something for two tumours but not one."
Bernie said how friends and family organised Michael and partner Lyndsey's wedding which happened on Friday, August 26 - which was also Michael's 37th birthday - in just 48 hours. She said: "Michael never complains, I suppose he has the two little girls and they keep him going is difficult because as I say his mobility is poor with the pain and what have you and he has spent a day or two in the hospice helping with his pain management.
"We arranged his wedding. We arranged that in 48 hours, everyone pulled together. We had flowers, makeup, venue, rings and dresses. The support that people have [given] and got behind him.
"It is something they wanted to do and he is very, very ill and will be nice for him." Childhood friend Emma Carberry is also now helping the family to fundraise to give Michael and his two daughters Libby, eight, and Phoebe, six, "the best Christmas".
She told the ECHO: "We have known Michael since we were kids and we grew up together. When we found out what was happening and stuff we did fundraising for him and then we just said we don't want Christmas to be a worry for him.
"With the price of bills and everything going up, we just don't want him to worry. He has worried enough already, paying for medication and bills on top of that. We, as friends, we would love to see him not having to worry about that.
"He is lovely, he would do anything for anyone. He was always the nice one out of all the lads. All the other lads would torment everyone and he was the nice one. He is just a really laidback lad, he is quiet and would never ask for anything and I think that is why we want to help him."
Writing on the GoFundMe page, Emma added: "Michael is a great dad and doesn’t deserve to have to worry about his health, along with cost of any other treatments that he may need to prolong his time with his family and as everyone knows Christmas can be a tough time, never mind with all these added stress.
"So we would love to take the added stress of this off him and his family and give them all the best Christmas ever."
Mum Bernie also wanted to thank everyone who has "supported and got behind" Michael and his family the last 18 months. She said: "There have also been strangers who have seen it in the ECHO and what have you and donated and sent messages of support. Want to say thank you to them."
To donate to Michael's GoFundMe page, please click here.
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