Farhad Yazdani was always full of life and energy. Married to his beautiful wife Zoiya for 34 years, he had three daughters and four grandchildren whom he loved so greatly and brought him so much joy.
He was diagnosed with bowel cancer two weeks after the birth of his third grandchild, Sophia. He had experienced vague symptoms for a few months prior such as tiredness, loss of appetite and bloating, which were overlooked and misdiagnosed.
The discovery of his diagnosis was earth shattering to both Farhad and his family, and a great sense of grief and desperation followed. The cancer had already spread to his lymph nodes and liver and he was given two years to live. Unfortunately his health quickly deteriorated and he lost his battle 10 short weeks later in April 2014, at the age of 58.
He had the kindest, purest and most loving heart and not once did we hear him complain, even during the most difficult of days. He will be remembered for his kindness, humility, humour, courage and love.
He left us with a reminder that early detection is paramount to the treatment bowel cancer. Knowing what we know now, we urge anyone who experiences symptoms to seek medical advice and to screen for early detection of bowel cancer.
* Farhad’s daughter Natalie has a boutique online bow tie business called Samuel Pilot, and is donating proceeds from a new range of black bow to help us prevent bowel cancer.