CONNED BY MY BEST FRIEND

They’d been close for 15 years, but Nicky Reynolds, 41, had fallen victim to the ultimate betrayal

- JENNY ACKLAND, NICK OWENS

Putting down my coffee, I reached across the table and squeezed my best friend’s hand.‘I’m so sorry,’ I said gently, not sure what else to say. Angela, then 37, had just told me she had breast cancer and I was devastated for her.

It was May 2005, and I’d not long moved to the area. A single mum to a five-year-old, it hadn’t been easy at times.

Angela and I both worked in health and social care, and over lunchtime coffees we’d quickly become close.

She was married, with a son a few years older than my daughter.

‘You’re going to beat this,’ I told her, offering to go to hospital appointments with her.

‘I’ll be fine,’ she always insisted. But afterwards I’d take her for a drink or afternoon tea to cheer her up. We’d often take the kids out together on our days off, too.

Angela was 13 years older than me, and as years passed, our friendship grew stronger. We saw each other through relationship breakdowns and problems with the kids.

But in January 2017, Angela messaged me saying that her cancer was back.

‘It’s terminal,’ she wrote. I called her straight away and promised that we’d get through it together. And when, weeks later, Angela told me she was struggling financially, I didn’t hesitate to offer my help.

FRIEND IN NEED

She’d just moved house, so I assumed it had been expensive. Clearing out my savings, I loaned her £5,000, and a few months later, she repaid every penny.