By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A WOMAN died on Sunday after being granted her Christmas wish to come home to The Bahamas to be with loved ones as she met her end following a battle with cancer.

Monique Woods, 43, was diagnosed with a severe case of colon cancer in 2013 following months of intense stomach pains. When the cancer left her bedridden in a Chicago hospital and beyond saving, Mrs Woods requested to be brought back to die “at home surrounded by those she loves”.

“She came two Thursdays ago,” Mrs Woods’ younger sister Beverley Turnquest told The Tribune yesterday, grateful for the public’s assistance in raising $20,000 needed to airlift her back to Nassau.

“She was able to see lots of family and friends. We told them no tears around her and we let her know that we will be okay and strong. Our gift to her was being there for her.

“On some days she was able to talk and some days she didn’t. She wasn’t talking the very last day (Sunday). The last communication she had wasn’t verbal. I’d asked her if she had any last requests and she wanted to see her grandmother. That was one of her last requests and they were close. My grandmother can’t see and she couldn’t talk but they held hands together. Her son is in school right now, in his last term in fact. She definitely wanted to be there when he finished.

“She was there for the first breath of her son and he was there with her when she took her last breath,” Ms Turnquest said.

She said her nephew has given serious thought to creating a foundation to raise awareness and encourage people to research their own family’s medical history in order to be proactive against illnesses.

Mrs Woods originally went to the United States to seek further consultation after local physicians were unable to find the source of her increasing discomfort.

In mid-2013, American physicians diagnosed Mrs Woods with the disease and informed her that her late diagnosis made fighting the ailment “next to impossible”.

After her diagnosis, Mrs Woods had routinely travelled from Nassau to Chicago where her husband is from, working with doctors there to monitor the developments associated with her ailment. During one of these routine visits, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to sections of her stomach and chest cavity.

Doctors admitted her to hospital and informed her the cancer had strengthened, leaving her unable to travel back to The Bahamas.

Ms Turnquest expressed gratitude to the public for their support and assistance.

“I was really proud to be a Bahamian when I saw all of the support from the public who heard my sister’s story. There are a lot of people in The Bahamas who have been affected by cancer and we’re a small community and so it definitely felt good that the people community is able to support each other when the need is genuine.”