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The Art of Dying – Drs Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick

On Easter Saturday 2001 I was working in my office when I was overcome by a feeling that my brother was in trouble. The feeling was overwhelming. I found myself agitated and saying out loud,

'Brian is in trouble, Brian is dying.'

My immediate reaction was that I was overworking as I was reaching the climax of two important long-term projects I was involved with. By this time I was pacing the room. I headed to the kitchen and made a cup of tea to try to calm down. At 11 o'clock I telephoned my brother Brian who lives in Australia - that is our usual contact time, 6 p.m. his time, but I had no reply. Over the Easter holiday I took my mobile phone in case there was a problem so that I could be contacted. Nothing happened, so I put it out of my mind, and concentrated on the events that were programmed, to climax at that period referred to.

Three weeks later, on 3 May at 11 a.m. Brian telephoned from the terminal cancer ward of the Hollywood Hospital in Perth. He said he was too ill to be treated, but the doctor was trying to build him up well enough to go home soon, and he would be arranging for me to fly out so he could show me around his special places. He went on to say that during Easter his legs had swollen up and his breathing became difficult. His local doctor told him that it looked like heart trouble . . . but he was advised to come back for a body scan on the following Tuesday. His lungs were filled with fluid and his kidneys had been all but destroyed with cancer.

Donald went out to Australia three days later and, sadly, on 13 May, his brother died.