my twin brother, who is 42, is currently dying from stage 4 bowel cancer. That’s the first time I’ve actually written those words down, dying...hits like a bullet. He has two young children and whilst a brave face is or in; it’s like living in a surreal universe. My ex husband walked out on me and my two girls 3 years ago and whilst I have fought desperately hard to rebuild that in the face of an exceptionally acrimonious divorce (affair, court cases still ongoing from 3 years ago, custody fight etc), the hardest immediate thing is that we want to visit my brother, who lives about 6 hours away, for the Xmas period but ex wants his contact with our girls over everything and won’t give me the flexibility that we need. I can’t commit to x days with my brother so he can ‘have’ our daughters for y days. My brother may not be well on the x days. Whilst cancer destroys the very essence of and steals good life from good people, it seems that it decides to allow the continuation of rot and manipulation in others. Cancer is evil and wants more and more and just takes and takes what it wants without feeling. How do you explain to your daughters that their father and their beloved uncle are going to leave them.