Family remembers ‘wonderful’ Kim
THIS week a family celebrated the birthday of a much-treasured mum lost to brain tumour.
Kim Keen would have been 46 on Wednesday and so on Tuesday her 11-year-old daughter Lily baked a lemon cake.
On half term holiday from St Mary Magdalene School, she was watched over by dad Daniel at home in Pebsham Lane.
Then on the day itself, they went out with older brother Joseph, 17, for a day of greyhound racing in Brighton.
As a physiotherapist who became directorate administrator for therapy services at Eastbourne District General Hospital, Kim was a well-known face at Bexhill Hospital and the Conquest, and also a mediator.
Her brain tumour was diagnosed last March following initial problems with earache, according to Dan.
“We didn’t sleep for a whole week,” he told the Observer.
“She was awake. She said it was like something was trying to break out of her head for a week.”
Kim went to the GP surgery to have her ear syringed but realised she had no chance of even getting the prescribed drops inside, and as the condition worsened it was discovered she had a tumour. She had been admitted to the Conquest before being transferred.
She was operated on successfully at Hurstwood Park Neurological Hospital ,but her health deteriorated again soon after.
Dan remembers the desperation of trying to find help for her on Bank Holiday Monday before the family was told the tumour had returned even worse than before.
“It was too late anyway,” he said.
“They decided to send her back to Hurstwood Park, and they did another operation, but it was too late.”
Kim died sooner than anyone predicted, just as son Joe was reaching the end of his first week of GCSEs last summer at St Richard’s Catholic College.
Dan this week paid tribute to the woman he met during Christmas 1984 on Eastbourne pier and was married to for 22 years.
He commented: “Kim couldn’t do enough for anyone. She never had a bad word. She was a mediator and she could always see both sides to the story. She was a friend to everyone she met.”
He described meeting his wife as “the best thing I ever did,” and said: “You can’t plan these things. “As it turned out, she was a good one.
“If you look at how long relationships last now, people change partners like there’s no tomorrow.
“When I first met Kim I had already booked a trip to Australia. Then I went out in August, and she was there by December. She was hot on my heels. I thought I was safe, but she was hot on my heels. It was meant to be.
“Even when she was younger she was still a matriarch. She was our family anchor.”
Daniel has already raised money for the hospital which treated her and last month with Joe presented a cheque for £1,250 to Friends of Hurstwood Park Hospital.
He was determined to thank the caring staff and mark her life with a contribution towards the work they do there.
He told them: “We want to say a big thank you to everyone who rallied round and contributed so much.
“It showed how much they thought of Kim and stands in memory of a wonderful mother and wife.”
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Weather for Bexhill-on-Sea
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South west
