It should have been the happiest time of Sophie Williams' life. She fell pregnant with her first child and she was looking forward to starting her family with her beloved partner Calan Smith.

But now the 32-year-old not only faces having her first baby alone but potentially losing her home in Warwickshire and her livelihood.

The day after his 34th birthday (May 29), Calan went to Warwick A&E's department with chest pains, breathlessness and heart palpitations. Three months later he died, with Sophie and his family by his side, in Myton Hospice.

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It has left Sophie facing a heart-breaking scenario - having their first child alone in November, as well as potentially losing their home in Kenilworth. Her sister Amy explained that the mortgage on the house was in Calan's name and, although he made a will, he did not have life insurance.

Sophie had only recently set up a dog grooming business from a special pod in the garden and now faces losing the house as well as her business, all while being a single mum. "I feel like we have been in a really sad film, a film that I would never watch as I know it would be so sad that I would have to turn it off," Amy said.

"It should be the happiest time of her life, she (Sophie) has been so excited and obviously she is now going to be a single parent and she is going to be on her own for all of those firsts, even down to going to appointments as you normally go with your partner. It is so bittersweet."

Heart breaking

Amy explained that Calan had complained of chest pains back in April. "He had been to the doctors and they said that they thought he had pulled some muscles in his chest. We thought nothing of it as he likes to work out and we thought maybe he had just over-exerted himself," she said.

On Sunday, April 28, his 34th birthday, they went out for a family meal. "On that Sunday, he had quite shallow breathing and by the Monday he had heart palpitations and he went to A&E," explained Amy, who is also pregnant with her second child.

"They kept him in and said, 'Oh we think you might have a collapsed lung and you have got pneumonia' and he basically never came back out." Medics initially thought he had pleurisy, then pneumonia and then said he had a mass on his lungs before being diagnosed with lung cancer.

After spending four weeks at Warwick Hospital, Calan was transferred to Nottingham Hospital with suspected germ cell cancer.

"They (the doctors) said it was rare but completely curable, so the whole time we were really hopeful." Then they received the devastating news that medics could not find the primary source of cancer.

"They couldn't start chemotherapy, they had to do more tests," she said. Then it was discovered that the cancer had spread.

"They blasted him with four different lots of chemo, which was really aggressive," she said. "That was on the Thursday. By Monday they told him that he wasn't going to make the night and he got transferred to Myton Hospice."

Sophie and Calan's family and friends were given a glimmer of hope at the hospice: "He was showing so many signs of improvement, he was up walking and eating like normal and was just normal him," Amy said.

"They agreed to see him back again at Nottingham, but when they scanned him, they found that it (the cancer) had spread and it was really aggressive. That was the Monday and he passed away on the Saturday."

Special moment

But before he passed away, Amy managed to arrange something special. She said that the couple had not planned to find out the sex of the baby - but she arranged for them to find out.

"They wanted it to be a bit of a surprise for when he was coming out of hospital," she explained. "So on the day he got to the hospice I sorted a scan for the next morning and I took my sister and they put the scan in an envelope and they (Sophie and Calan) sat and opened it together at the hospice."

They found out they were having a girl - and named her together - Darcey. "Calan was so happy, they thought it was going to be a girl and they have named her.

"It is so sad, she (Darcey) will grow up not knowing her dad. But he got to feel her kick and other things, which is never enough but he managed those things."

Dying wish

Calan's funeral was on Wednesday (September 6) and now Amy is trying to help fulfil one of his last requests - for his family to stay in their home.

"His dying wish was 'I really want you to stay there and bring the baby up there'," Amy said. "I know my sister would love to stay there, so I am just looking into anything I can at the minute into how we can keep her there."

They set up a GoFundMe page and so far the response has been huge, with more than £12,000 donated. "We can't believe it," Amy said. "I didn't really want to set it up, I don't want to be that type of person that is begging for money, but a friend of mine at work said 'Sophie is going to lose everything, she has always worked, Calan has always worked' and she said that even if we can get a chunk of money to bring the mortgage down, then she (Sophie) could maybe get a mortgage.

"If she loses her house, then she loses her business. We are just looking at doing everything we can. We just want to do something for her and Darcey going forward."

Anyone who would like to donate to the appeal can do so via the GoFundMe page here.

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