SHE is the “glue that holds a family together” and now her last wishes are being ticked off one by one.

Great-grandmother Janet Priest, from Greater Leys, Oxford, was told by doctors last week she has just three months left to live.

And now the family that has so often benefited from the 63-year-old’s caring nature are rallying round to help her complete a ‘bucket list’ of last requests.

Mrs Priest, who has inoperable liver cancer, will renew her wedding vows with husband Terry on July 20. The couple had a low-key ceremony in Devon in March 1969.

The pub-quiz fanatic has been a carer to her husband, who suffered one of his 10 heart attacks at Wembley as Oxford United secured promotion last year, and has seen her son Andrew battle leukaemia.

Son Jason said: “Mum has been a rock for dad and Andrew. Just when we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel with both, she gets hit with this.”

Among the ambitions Mrs Priest wants to achieve are a trip to Canvey Island, in Essex, where she spent many childhood days out, a sing-along with an Irish band, and a visit to the Blackpool Illuminations.

Describing her to-do list – named after the 2007 Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson film The Bucket List – she said: “They are all things I have always said I have wanted to do. When I found out how ill I was I thought ‘let’s see what I can do’.”

She added: “I could not wish for a better family, they are wonderful. They are all doing their bit.”

Mrs Priest, who gets help from a Macmillan Cancer nurse, is to get a hospital bed in her Emperor Gardens home.

The couple, who met 45 years ago when Terry worked as a conductor for the Oxford Bus Company, will renew their vows at SS Mary and Nicholas Church, in Littlemore, before a reception at the nearby Priory pub, courtesy of landlord Tim Rackley.

Mr Priest, 71, said: “I am looking forward to it, giving her everything she wants, but I am still shocked and in that state where you cannot believe it.

“It seems like everything is rushed. I suppose it has to be. Everything is in a hurry.

“I am in this house 24 hours a day with her and I am looking at her every day and I see her deteriorating. That’s the hardest part.”

Daughter Sam Barrett said: “We’ve always been a close family, always there for each other, and we are pulling together, but mum has always been the glue.

“Once we started planning these things she started eating again and being much more upbeat, we’ve noticed a big difference.”

Terry said: “It has given her a new lease of life.”

Janet's last requests are:

  • Renew wedding vows
  • Visit Canvey Island
  • Visit Blackpool Illuminations
  • Have a sing-along to Irish songs
  • Spend a night at Malmaison hotel at Oxford Castle
  • Hold a design by Robert Thompson, a wood carver known as the Mouseman for the mice he sculpts into his work.
  • Wear a cerise ball gown and make-up for a photograph

    If you can offer a wedding car or carriage, helium balloons and a ball gown, or help with any other of the wishes, email jmlpriest@aol.com or call Jason Priest on 07557 050098.