A terminally ill man has said he has been “blown away” by an outpouring of generosity from Wrexham Football Club and businesses in the city who have made his dying wish possible. A year after father-of-two Jay Fear had an operation to remove a cancerous mass in his appendix, he received the devastating news that the cancer had spread to his lungs and was terminal.
Given months to live, Jay modestly asked to go and watch Wrexham play and to “try and meet” club co-owner Ryan Reynolds. He has since received paid-for tickets thanks to generous fans and local businesses, and the Hollywood star has since privately sent Jay a video saying “I’m in your corner” and pledging to try and find him at Saturday's game, when Wrexham could seal promotion to the Football League.
After watching docuseries Welcome to Wrexham while recovering from his operation last year Jay, from Southampton, fell in love with the city, club and Wrexham FC’s owners Reynolds and Rod McElhenney. "I've loved Ryan Reynolds since his Van Wilder days, but it turns out he's a gent in real life too," Jay told WalesOnline.
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“I had no affiliation to Wrexham beforehand but I just couldn’t help falling in love with the city and what they have both done for the club - and not just the club but for the area too,” the 45-year-old said. “In October 2021 I was diagnosed with appendix cancer and I had an operation in December and spent all of Christmas in hospital. When I came out in the new year last year I was pretty much sitting on the sofa and I couldn’t do anything, and I saw Welcome to Wrexham and found it so exciting.”
Jay remembers vividly feeling numb as his wife “screamed” beside him when they received the news he had “months rather than years” to live. “It came as a total shock because from the day after the operation to have the mass removed I was pretty much cancer free. I was having monthly blood tests and I went for my annual CT scan in December 2022.
“Then on January 4 I had a phone appointment with the oncologist and he said the scan was showing a mass where my cancer had been removed and a couple of nodules on my lungs. I went in for a face to face meeting and had geared myself up for surgery really. But on January 11 he told me I wasn’t going to be treatable. The more he spoke the more I started to realise it didn’t sound like it was going to end well.
“I asked him if it was going to kill me and he said ‘yes’. I then asked how long I had left and he said ‘months rather than years’. My wife started screaming, I just sat there. I’d have lost it too if it had been the other way around.”
Still working four days a week for an air compressing company in the south east, Jay said he is trying to lead as normal a life as he can, and has been overwhelmed by the generosity of “so, so many people”.
“I hadn’t even thought about a wish at the end of my life, but my community nurses kept asking me about it,” he explained. “I tried to think of something more for my family. The whole of my life since my kids have come along it’s been about my wife and the kids. I thought of it quite randomly being a new follower of the club, and my wife and kids said ‘yes’ straight away.”
With the help of Bucket List Wishes and anonymous businesses in Wrexham, the Fear family’s two-day stay in Wrexham this weekend, where they’ll take in Wrexham’s potential promotion-clinching game against Boreham Wood, has all been paid for. Four extremely generous fans have also given up their season ticket seats for the game so the family can enjoy the experience with a prime view of the pitch.
To make the weekend even more special, Reynolds - who has also privately sent a video to Jay telling him “I’m in your corner” - has told the family he will find them in the crowd at the Racecourse Ground personally to spend some time with them at the game. The wish was made possible after Jay’s 16-year-old son Sam's tweet received thousands of shares, including from Wales football legend Neville Southall and ex-Arsenal captain Tony Adams.
“It turns out this Saturday we’re being picked up in Southampton and they’re taking us up to Wrexham,” excited Jay continued. “I’ve actually never been to the Racecourse Ground and I don’t think I’ve ever been to north Wales. We’re really looking forward to it.
“We’re being taken to a hotel first and then we’re being picked up for the game. The tickets have also been donated by four really kind fans so the four of us could go.
“It’ll be great to see Wrexham get promoted, which they’re bound to do this weekend as well. Honestly I’m just completely blown away by it all. I’m nobody special, I’m just a guy like many thousands of others who is terminally ill. To have all of this given to me, I certainly don’t take it for granted.
“It’s amazing when you become terminally ill how much people want to do for you really. I can’t believe the support from everyone. People have said such lovely things to me and my family. You don’t often see that before you die, and I feel extremely fortunate I have.”
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