Published: Monday, 2nd March, 2009 10:30am

Before I go

by Willie Logan

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"2008 started as the worst year of my life and finished as the best year of my life with the way it has changed."

So says dying Dalgety Bay father Willie Logan who was given the heartbreaking news last year that he has a terminal brain tumour and now has only between six to nine months left to live.

The Press caught up with the avid Pars fan last week after he was able to make time in his busy schedule to chat.

First off he was keen to thank the large number of people who have made such a difference to his life over the last 12 months.

All the help that everybody has given me was one of the things that helped me turn my life around.

"I want to thank them for raising so much money and let them know that their support really made such a big difference," he said.

"Because of them we raised a lot of money for charity and we were able to send my wife and wee boy to Lapland."

Willie had a small setback over Christmas when he suffered a seizure after being told his cancer and his tumour had settled.

Over the past 12 months Willie's life has turned around so much that he now finds himself with a full schedule of activities he previously would never have considered.

"I'm starting to feel a lot better now," he said. "I go to Bannatyne's gym three times a week and two days a week at the hospice we do exercises in the morning.

"Because of the steroids I'm taking I'm not going to lose the weight I want to lose but I have discovered green tea helps burn the fat off and also that it helps fights cancer in your body.

"I've got something to do every day these days. I don't even miss going to the football.

"One of the things I really enjoy that I have picked up from the hospice is paint by numbers. I do it in the afternoon when I come home from the gym and it just relaxes me.

"They are forming a club at the Maggies Centre in Kirkcaldy for people like myself who have tumours on the brain.

"It is good conversation talking to other people who have the same sorts of things I've got and it is great for the wife to meet people who are going through the same things as she is.

"Next week I go for chemo. After this one I will have to go for a scan and they or I will decide if I'm going for another two. Each time I do it it makes me feel ill.

"I can accept feeling ill to give me more time to spend with my wee boy. It is the only reason I'm doing it.

"He's starting to beat me at a lot of the games, so we don't play them anymore. He even beat me at crazy putting once. His first putt was a hole in one and he beat me by one stroke. We never played again."

Willie, wife Karen and son Ewan would like to thank the following people for their help and generosity over the past 12 months:

Sheila West, manager of the Kilt Company, Guildhall Street; Bobby Cleary, DG Garden World; Davie Duncanson, from the Dunfermline Press; Palace Hairdressers, Diamond Cutz, Rosyth; the people from Deri, Wales; Ricky Noble, from Hillend Tavern; Jason Barber; Wendy and Kieran Boyle; Dick Campbell; Jim Leishman and especially Chris Campbell. Also his brother Ed Logan, family and friends.