A MAN who lost his wife to cancer just four weeks after getting married, is asking people to help fulfil one of her dying wishes – and Stand Up to Cancer.
Angus Hall-Hulme, whose wife Victoria died last September aged just 33, makes the impassioned plea, during Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer programming tomorrow night, October 31st.
Stand Up to Cancer is the joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4. It takes developments from the lab and accelerates them into new tests and treatments to help save more lives.
Angus hopes Victoria’s story will inspire people to stand together against the disease by raising money to help make the next cancer breakthrough happen.
Victoria and Angus had both been unlucky in love. They had almost given up on finding ‘the one’. Then one day, while walking through Hyde Park, their eyes met and they recognised each other from a brief ‘swipe right’ moment on a dating site.
Too shy to speak, they passed by. But later, Victoria contacted Angus, they had their first date in Hyde Park, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The couple, from London, married in a beautiful ceremony, surrounded by family and friends. But four weeks later, Victoria died.
In between their meeting in Hyde Park and their wedding in Chelsea, were months of love, pain and heartbreak that neither of them could have foreseen.
Angus, who lives in Chelsea, said the last year, since losing Victoria, had been ‘the most horrendous storm’ where grief was never far away.
He said he made the film with Channel 4 because it was what Victoria wanted.
“It also continues Victoria’s charity work which she drove with her indefatigable energy and charisma right up until the day before she died, giving an interview for Stand Up to Cancer.
“She did so much with her family and friends to get out of this awful experience what she could and raise money for charity – nearly £200,000.
“As hard as it was, there was never any question that I wouldn’t do my best to help in any way I could. It has been such a beautiful experience working with Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 with people pouring passion into helping people through terrible situations. These acts feel like the zenith of humanity, putting humans in their best light.
“There are so many people who were close to Victoria who felt the tragedy of her loss, and still do, every day.
“It’s incredibly emotional but there is strength in coming together and either remembering those who have gone or trying to help others in the future. So many of us have our own cancer stories and having seen a young person like Victoria pass away in such horrific circumstances, no-one’s loved ones should have to go through that. So anything we can do to stop this happening again in the future, we just have to get behind. And to do that we need the funding to alleviate and prevent this in the future.”
Victoria who had a first class degree from Cambridge, a masters in psychology and an exciting career in venture capital, also loved to swim, surf, climb and ski
She and Angus met in late 2020, just as the world was coming out of lockdown.
As they moved into 2021, life felt great – Victoria had got a promotion at work and she’d fallen in love with Angus. But in August came the shocking revelation that she had bowel cancer.
Two weeks of abdominal cramps, a little weight loss and fatigue were the only – initially unrecognised – signs there was anything wrong.
Surgeons cut the tumour out and Victoria started six months of chemotherapy. But from then on, the news just got worse and worse. In March, scans revealed the cancer had spread and was incurable.
“It totally turned my life upside down – all my plans for having children, starting an awesome new job, all the things we strive for when we assume a long life were scuppered,” she said.
However, out of that trauma came the realisation of just how strong Victoria and Angus’s relationship was.
“The idea that my life was going to be shortened very considerably made us just want to be there for each other – make each other happy in the here and now and be damned with the consequences.”
Last summer, when Victoria was feeling at rock bottom, she and Angus had a late-night heart to heart and Angus told her he would rather spend ‘months with her in his life than years without her in it.’
“I felt that when I leave this world, I could go knowing I had been fulfilled and that my legacy would be a partnership we created, even though I want him to move on meet someone. It was good to know I was worth hanging around for,” she said.
Victoria knew her time was limited so she organised a wedding in six weeks from her hospital bed. She called it their magical ‘little big day’.
When they met, Angus was developing a new style of dating app, called Sliding Doors, which allows people to safely approach each other in real-life situations. Victoria was insistent he should progress that and through his grief he has forced himself to work on it and will launch it next year.
Around 36,500 people diagnosed with cancer every year in London,* the need to speed up progress is clear.
Every action big or small could make a difference. Stand Up To Cancer is helping to transform the landscape of cancer therapy. Since its launch in 2012, the campaign has raised more than £93 million, funding 64 clinical trials and research projects involving more than 13,000 cancer patients.
Cancer Research UK spokesperson for London, Lynn Daly, said: “Thanks to our supporters, our researchers are working tirelessly to help more people survive – from developing a molecule to super-charge the immune system to attack tumours, to re-programming viruses to seek and destroy cancer cells.
“But we must go further and faster. One-in-two of us will get cancer in our lifetime.** All of us can help beat it. That’s why we’re asking everyone to Stand Up To Cancer with us. Whether it’s choosing to donate, fundraise, or tackle our squats challenge, if thousands of us take a stand, we’ll speed up the progress of vital research – meaning more people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
The Stand Up To Cancer campaign will culminate in a night of live television on Channel 4 on Friday 3rd November.
To donate or fundraise visit su2c.org.uk
