Terry

"Today is a day to remember and celebrate how lucky I was to have such a wonderful 'legend' of a Step Dad."

A year ago today was one of the worst days of my life. I lost my step dad to lung cancer. He was a fighter though. I was the proudest step daughter when the doctor told us that Terry was the strongest man he had ever treated. Terry fought as much as he could as he didn't want to leave us. I stayed by his side throughout as I knew he would of done the same. The memories of hospital will forever haunt me but I knew I had to be there. It made me strong. I know I can replace the bad memories with the best.

I remember a promise Terry made to my dad that he would look after us and he sure did. He was the leader of the family he took control of everything, was so caring always willing to do anything, always having a joke making everyone smile and feel safe.

It's been such a roller coster, I can't believe how strong my family and I have been, but this strength comes from the strength we witnessed from him when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. None of us knew how bad it was as he kept it all bottled up as he didn't want to hurt us, he just carried on with day to day life. He was always keeping busy and carrying on he didn't want anyone to pity him.

Today I'm wearing my navy Fred Perry dress as I always thought Terry was so cool when he wore his Fred Perry shirt. I now have his shirt hanging up in my room, I would never wear it as it still has his deodorant marks on it. I'm planning on spending the day listening to his favourite music, Robbie Williams, Queen and The Specials. I'm going to go to Sainsbury's and treat myself to all the foods he loved, inspired by all the empty packets of cakes we used to find in his car.

I had a 'Terry cup of tea' when I woke up which is a tea with three sugars. It was very sweet, no wonder he always had energy to get on with all the jobs round the house.

He was the best most strongest incredible dad in the world and even though we didn't share blood he was still my dad. Being brought up by him by from the age of eight makes me the girl I am today. I was so lucky to have such a great father figure.

Forever in my thoughts, there's only one Terry Ilott.