Family grieve after young mother dies from cancer

A YOUNG mother has died following a battle with cancer.

Sophie Watkins McGarry, of Farm Close, Sonning Common, passed away on June 14 at the Duchess of Kent Hospice in Reading surrounded by her family.

The 27-year-old had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in June last year.

Sophie lived with her husband Alekos, 33, and their two-year-old daughter Aria.

The family had recently moved into their house after spending more than eight months in temporary accommodation as Mr McGarry had to give up his job to care for his wife.

They were helped to move in by a number of friends, family and villagers who volunteered their time to paint the rooms and sort out the garden.

The couple held a garden party at their new home in April to thank all the volunteers who had helped them move and were donated a chairlift by the Chiltern Edge Community Association.

Alekos’s parents, Aleka Melioti and Ray McGarry, who live in Pages Orchard, ran a number of events in the village hall to raise money for Sophie’s treatment.

Mrs Melioti described her daughter-in-law as brave, humorous, loving and full of desire for life.

She said: “[Sophie] met my son in June 2015 and since then they were inseparable. I met her in August of the same year and loved her straight away.

“They grew together in their relationship as Sophie was 18 and Alekos just 23 when they met.

“In their nine years together, they faced situations, problems, issues, turbulence, happy moments, unique emotions and unbearable pain so much so that others in the same situation may well not have got through it. They really were together through the good and bad times. They worked together, changed jobs, packed and moved home so many times in order to build a better future for themselves and their daughter.

“They shared the joy of seeing Aria coming into this world, prayed together in the waiting room of some hospitals, supported each other in pain, hugged each other every day and forgave each other’s mistakes and miserable moments.

“They laughed and cried together at the same things and they laughed at each other’s stupid moments and acts. They had the same bad habits, liked the same food, the same movies, and had the same desires and dreams.

“They enjoyed the same simple things and they could discuss and argue for hours about everything — but Sophie was always the winner.

“Just like all couples, they were dreaming and planning for a life together but life had different plans for them.”

The couple first met in Leeds, near where Sophie grew up, and lived happily together until she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time in January 2020.

Following surgery and six rounds of chemotherapy, Sophie was given the “all-clear” and the couple moved south to be closer to her in-laws.

They were living in Tilehurst last year when Sophie was told that the cancer had returned and spread to her lungs and brain. She was given six months to live.

Mrs Melioti said: “In June 2023, after we realised how bad things were going to be, we quit our jobs straight away and became carers for Sophie and Aria so we could be there whenever there was a need.

“Alekos has stood at Sophie’s side day and night helping her to accept and face all the consequences.

“Through all this I tried to play it cool and said to them, ‘Let’s try to find positive things in this terrible situation and face it together’. I am still trying to follow the same path.

“God or life, or whatever, gave them the opportunity to find the ultimate unconditional love, experience strong feelings, get married and bring to the world their lovely, sweet and exceptionally good and clever little girl Aria.

“They managed to have some very happy years together. They had each other and more than anything else they stayed together through the horrible days, months and years of cancer, chemo and pain.

“They watched their baby become a toddler as she began crawling and walking and started speaking and they shared unique memories.

“They experienced what true love is. It is more than just romanticism, it’s two people who stand beside one another, who are committed to one another through all the good and bad that life throws at them.”

When Sophie started chemotherapy Alekos quit his job to care for his wife but they found it impossible to rent privately without payslips.

The couple spent months living in ill-suited temporary accommodation in Reading after being placed in band D, the lowest priority for social housing.

They finally moved into their permanent home in March after an appeal through the Henley Standard and help from Reading East MP Matt Rodda and Sonning Common parish and district councillor Leigh Rawlins.

Mrs Melioti, who is Greek, described Sophie as like her second daughter.

She said: “I have loved her with all the power in my heart. She called me Mana, which in Greek is a very powerful word for Mother, from the first moment I met her and I hope I was exactly that for her.

“On the day of her first chemo, I wanted to be at the hospital in Leeds. As she didn’t know what to expect, she told me not to go but I told her that I would be there outside the hospital just in case they needed me.

“So I travelled up from London and when she saw me she said with a big smile, ‘Mana, you are like chewing gum that sticks under my shoe and I can’t get rid of it’.

“A year has passed since this nightmare started and I didn’t hear her complain or moan at all about what she had to face.

“When I was crying at one point, she told me that she was chosen to get through this painful situation. She is my hero and she is going to become the brightest star in the sky, looking down on us day and night.

“Her voice will always be in my ears, calling me Mana, telling off Tornado [the dog] in Greek or saying ‘ela reee’. I wish I could have taken her to Greece once more to let her taste the tomatoes or a nice steak at our favourite restaurant.

“But I will take Aria and I will teach her Greek side by side with Alekos. She will learn to enjoy the Greek food, the sea and the sun as her mum did.”

Sophie’s funeral will be held at St Andrew’s Church in Sonning on Monday, July 8 at 1pm.

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