Our race AGAINST TIME

When doctors told Esther Bate-Williams that time was running out for her husband, it only made the couple more determined to fulfil their dreams

- MATT BARBOUR AND LOUISE BATY

Sitting in the sunshine on a first date, I smiled at the handsome man with dark brown eyes in front of me. It was June 2020 and although I’d met Stuart Bathers six months earlier through my older brother, this was our first chance to really get to know each other, due to Covid-19 restrictions. We’d organised a picnic in Pitville Park, Cheltenham, and talked for hours over nibbles and wine.

There was no first-date awkwardness; it felt like I’d known Stuart all my life. We talked about past relationships and he admitted that he’d never felt ready to start a family. But with his 40s looming – he was due to turn 39 the day after our date – he now wanted nothing more than to be a dad.

Usually, a comment like this on a first date would’ve unnerved me. But at 40, I completely understood where Stuart was coming from, and told him how much I wanted to be a mum, too.

After our successful first date, we saw each other whenever we could, fitting Esther and Stuart a dates around my wedding-floristry business and Stuart’s sales job.

The first six months were blissful but then, in January 2021, Stuart started suffering headaches. We put them down to work stress, but within days, he became uncharacteristically snappy and his speech seemed blurred.

On 22 January, I found him lying in bed, feeling really lethargic and struggling to form sentences. Calling NHS 111, I was advised that he might have had a stroke.

We went to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital – by now Stuart was feeling a bit better, but he had tests and scans before a doctor ushered us into a room and asked us to sit down.