I nagged my husband for years to see a doctor about the mole on his back... but when he finally went, it was too late

Like a lot of women, Michele Nolan have been eagerly waiting for her big day. She and her fiance, Billy, have been together for nearly two decades. Even though they'd had two children, they'd never got round for you to get married.

So, on March 6 this past year, they finally tied the knot, using their kids Charli, then 14, and Alicia, then eight, watching.

But rather than standing around the altar or perhaps in a register office, Michele perched around the fringe of a mattress inside a Marie Curie cancer hospice.

Together for 25 years: Billy and Michele before he developed cancer

Rather than putting on a whitened dress, she used jeans. Billy, when a strong, well-built guy, would be a shadow of his former self and battled to sit down in mattress.

Six days later, he died of malignant melanoma - the most harmful type of cancer of the skin. He only agreed to be 43.

The tragedy is, which had he succumbed to his wife's pleas to obtain a suspicious-searching mole examined, he may be alive.

Michele, 41, grew to become conscious of the risks of moles 13 years before. While collecting Charli from playgroup eventually, another mother marched as much as her.

'You is deserving of that examined,' she stated, pointing to some small mole on Michele's chest. Explaining that her husband would be a cancer of the skin specialist, she cautioned that some moles could be harmful.

Michele states: 'Being contacted like this helped me see my GP. As they thought the mole was harmless, he made the decision to freeze them back like a precaution. Fortunately, it had been fine. But Billy were built with a large mole around the lower-left side of his back, and so i advised him to obtain examined, too.

'I was insistent, but, as being a typical guy, he shrugged off my concern. Though he labored within the construction industry, frequently outdoors, he never required his shirt off while he was fair-skinned and burned easily.

'Also, the potential of Billy's mole being cancerous appeared remote. It had been smooth and rounded just like a normal mole, then when he made the decision not to visit the physician, the problem was dropped.'

Regardless of this, she stored track of it. Whenever the household continued holiday, Michele ensured these were covered in sun cream. However in 2004, she observed Billy's mole had transformed. It looked bigger, ragged round the edges and crusty.

'It seemed to be altering colour from brown to black,' states Michele. 'Every time I caught sight from it, I nagged Billy about visiting a physician. However, he always was adamant it had been fine.'

In March 2005, Michele lost her persistence with Billy. If he did not see the GP, she'd get it done for him.

Finally, he agreed, but even if he came back home by having an appointment to be removed like a precaution, he was unfazed.

However when the mole was removed at Solihull Hospital, the pair were advised Billy had malignant melanoma. This is actually the most harmful type of cancer of the skin since it can spread with other organs in your body. It affects 9,000 British people annually and claims greater than 1,800 lives.

Cancer Research United kingdom figures show rates of melanoma have risen faster in great britan than every other cancer, declaring more lives here compared to Australia.

To be able to determine whether cancer had spread, a little portion of Billy's skin was taken off sleep issues of his back for testing.

'I was afraid that my worst nightmare was coming true,' states Michele. 'But then your physician told us the melanoma have been removed and also the cancer hadn't spread. I was told no further treatment was needed, so assumed he'd received the all-obvious. A feeling of relief was incredible.'

Then, in October 2006, 18 several weeks later, Billy came home from work and told Michele to sit down lower. He'd visited the GP that next day of getting a pea-sized lump on his lower-back when washing. He was immediately accepted to hospital in which the lump was removed and examined.

Michele states: 'This switched to be considered a malignant tumor - another cancer. We had not caught it over time - cancer had spread, unbeknown towards the consultant. I was devastated.

'Billy appeared very well and powerful, then when a CT scan found cancer in the lung area and the brain, it had been unpredicted. I was told the cancer was terminal. Because the consultant spoken about palliative care, I sitting there wondering how lengthy Billy had left. But he advised me to not request - he did not need to know while he desired to live an ordinary existence as lengthy as you possibly can.

'He also did not want other people to understand he'd terminal cancer - he did not would like them to fret or treat him in a different way. Due to this, we made the decision to carry off telling our kids.

'Billy's only symptom would be a cough. But since the cancer had spread to his brain, he was told his balance and co-ordination would become affected, which makes it harmful for him to operate on the building site. He needed to open up to his boss he was seriously ill.'

With short time left, Michele and Billy required the women with an adventure holiday.

'Billy loved as being a father,' states Michele. 'As I viewed him splashing around using the women within the water park, it had been difficult to believe I would lose him due to a mole.

'I loved him a lot, he would be a brilliant father, partner and friend. I had been furious concerning the unfairness from it all, but Billy continued to be positive.'

The pair also made the decision to got married.

Michele states: 'The date was looking for March 13, 2007, but at the outset of Feb this past year, Billy had a terrible headache.'

Billy's discomfort - triggered through the tumor in the brain - couldn't be relieved with regular medication, and doctors recommended radiotherapy. This is palliative and wouldn't lead him to better.

5 days of radiotherapy reduced the discomfort, but made Billy's thick, brown baldness in handfuls.

Michele states: 'Watching him be ill was heartbreaking. His legs would buckle and I'd hear him stumble and fall.'

As Billy's condition deteriorated, Marie Curie nurses looked after him in your own home. In March 2007, he was accepted for their hospice in Solihull.

'Doctors advised me to try and bring the marriage date forward,' states Michele. 'So I visited begin to see the local registrar, who decided to marry us in the hospice 72 hours later.

'It wasn't how I'd imagined my wedding could be. However the women have there been and that i am pleased to be his wife. Six days later, he died around by his side.'

Billy had wanted Charli to sing at his funeral, so Michele urged her to create a recording from the REM song Everyone Affects that she'd sang in a Christmas concert.

Michele adds: 'It's challenging for the women becoming an adult with no father. Basically had pulled him through the hair to determine a physician, maybe he'd be around to determine them develop.A

• Charli has recorded an audio lesson like a tribute to Billy and also to raise funds in the memory. To buy the Compact disc (I Understand) You Will Be There, visit world wide web.charlinolan.com. Proceeds visit Marie Curie Cancer Care.