A doting husband was so focused on ensuring his sick wife beat cancer that he didn’t realise the very same disease was killing him.

The caring 57-year-old Robert O’Brien only discovered he himself was gravely ill when his bile duct cancer had become terminal, just weeks ago.

The dad-of-two put his own health on the back burner, his devastated wife Philippa said, to make sure she was completely cared for.

But while the 51-year-old’s condition is getting better, Robert died on Sunday morning, his distraught family announced.

Last night, his daughters said: "It is with a heavy heart that we must tell you all, that our dad lost his battle with cancer this morning and died in the arms of his wife and daughters.

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"Our dad was a great man and knowing he was so loved, carries us through."

The keen fisherman took control when Philippa became seriously ill, suffering from a rare sarcoma cancer in the tissue and muscle of her hip and back of her thigh.

At the time, he was experiencing chest pains, but despite regular trips to the doctor, they never sent the Liverpool FC fan for proper check ups.

Heartbroken Philippa, a former personal assistant, said: “He was so concerned about me.

"He was doing everything for me, absolutely everything.”

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Buoyed by her husband’s support, she battled through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a gruelling operation to clear the cancer.

But the family’s joy was short-lived when, weeks later, they were floored by the news Robert had the disease - and that it had spread throughout his body.

Philippa said if her husband, from Preston, Lancs, had not been so focused on nursing her back to health, he would have ensured GPs diagnosed his complaints.

She said: “I couldn’t get out of bed sometimes because I was so poorly.

“Robert was feeding me, making sure I had my medication, doing everything in the house.

“He was definitely putting it to the back of his mind, because he was so concerned about me, making me feeling comfortable and helping me getting better.”

Daughter Emma, 28, a mental health nurse, said her dad had been planning a final romantic gesture on a bucket list of aims before his death.

He wanted to visit the city park where he proposed and his children, Emma and Lauren, 36, talked of buying him a ring so he could once again pop the question.

CASCADE NEWS

David Cameron stood in Downing Street to announce: “We are on the brink of something special.”

The PM is right. We are on the brink something specially unpleasant for Bedroom Tax victims and anyone ­dependent on welfare payments to live.

Former Labour London Mayor Ken Livingstone calls this special something “five more years of pure evil”.

Without the Lib Dems or a hung Parliament to constrain the Tories, they can now let rip against the poorest and most vulnerable.

Throughout the six-week election ­campaign Mr Cameron – branded the Sheriff of Nottingham by TV star Paul O’Grady over the hated Bedroom Tax – boasted of making £12billion of welfare cuts but would not reveal where the axe will fall.

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To put that astronomical figure into perspective, it’s the equivalent of a burglar nicking £545 from every household in the land.

The Tories will be able to claw back £250million a year in housing benefit until 2020 by making a million more families pay the Bedroom Tax.

The number will rise 220,000 a year with victims paying an average £3,800 over the five-year term of this government.

And a report last week said the Bedroom Tax may even rise above the present average of £14 a week for one extra bedroom and £25 for two.

It is claimed that discussions in the Department of Work and Pensions took place last year in which massive cuts were proposed.

They also included a benefit payments freeze, limiting payments to family size and even the abolition of statutory maternity pay.

Banning under-25s from claiming any housing or ­incapacity benefit was also considered.

Top Tories are talking about the PM launching a 100-day policy blitz while Labour is still too stunned by defeat to mount effective opposition.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has already cut the financial help ­available to Bedroom Tax victims by 24%.

Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities which provide a lifeline to hardship cases were slashed from £165million to £125million last month.

Had Labour leader Ed Miliband won the General Election on Thursday, the Sunday People would have spent Friday inside the DWP.

And we would have witnessed shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Rachel Reeves sign the paperwork which would have scrapped the Bedroom Tax.

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Victim Julia Jones, 62, said: “Many tenants hit by this tax are feeling sick and in despair.

“Victory for a Labour party which would abolish the Bedroom Tax was their last hope. We now have to pick ourselves up, regroup, and fight on.”

The battle is too late for Stephanie Bottrill, 53, who was so stressed by a Bedroom Tax demand she killed herself.

But for as long as it takes, the Sunday People will be beside Julia battling this monstrous injustice.

The Tories will look after the better off by raising the higher-rate threshold at which 40% income tax becomes payable to £50,000.

And they will scrap the top 45p rate for the highest earners and lift the ceiling to £1million before inheritance tax is payable by married couples.

Mr Cameron has also promised an extra £8billion for the NHS but not said how he will pay for it. As he has ruled out tax rises, that can only come from cuts elsewhere.

That could mean fewer police and fire fighters and means-testing child benefit.

A squeeze on the BBC when its charter comes up for renewal next year could see some channels funded by subscription.

And giving 1.3 million housing association tenants the right to buy their homes may spark a new housing crisis.

Animal rights groups will be outraged by a free vote for MPs so the Tories can overturn Labour’s 2004 ban on fox hunting.

Mr Cameron also wants to go ahead with plans to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

That will stop Labour’s inbuilt advantage in the constituency boundary system – and make it tougher for them to topple the Tories in 2020.