The devoted mother of footballer Jordan Sinnott, who was tragically killed in 2020, has revealed she has terminal cancer.
Last December, Melanie Tait, who is only 54, was told she had “days, maybe a week” to live by a medic. In her darkest moment, the ex-detective silently spoke to her late son: "Jord, help me have more time, I need to get your brother Tom in a better place.”
Miraculously, Melanie rallied from her near-death experience and today explains that even after his death, Jordan is always near her – sending her a message, urging her to go to hospital when she first noticed something was wrong.
“Family is simply everything to me. I don’t want to leave them, obviously, but I have some peace knowing I will be with Jordan again.”
Her semi-professional footballer son was just 25 when he was attacked after a misunderstanding about a joke in a pub in Retford, Nottinghamshire, in January 2020.
Drunk Kai Denovan, 23, told him he was a “good-looking lad” who would have “no trouble pulling girls”, unlike himself who was “fat and ginger”.
Believing he was joining in the banter, Jordan said, “Yes, I can see that.” Denovan and his accomplice Cameron Matthews, 22, repeatedly punched Jordan, who fell to the ground and fractured his skull.
He died hours later in hospital. Denovan and Matthews were both convicted of manslaughter – Denovan was jailed for 11 years and Matthews, who delivered the fatal blow, got eight years, following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
Jordan died not knowing his fiancée was pregnant. Kelly Bossons, 29, went on to have their daughter, Maisie Jordan, in September 2020.
Now Melanie and her family are facing another test after her shock diagnosis last year. Melanie had done the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in May 2022 with her HGV driver son Tom, 32, and Kelly.
“We walked 25 miles in 10 hours. I was fit and well, running regularly,” she says. Then, in August, she was getting ready to go out with husband Ian, 56, when she struggled to zip up her dress.
“I felt I had put on weight around my midriff and my tummy looked swollen. I’d been in a bikini six weeks earlier. I said to Ian that I would go to the doctors next week.
“Suddenly, Jordan’s voice came into my head. ‘Mum, you need to go to hospital, please go now,’” recalls Melanie.
“I was stunned as I had no other symptoms but Ian took me to A&E. I said, ‘I am very sorry but something is wrong with my stomach. My son died three years ago – he told me to go to hospital.’
"They just accepted what I said after I described the hell of the past three years.”
An agonising wait
Melanie was kept in and finally, after a series of scans, a consultant came to see her. “He looked uncomfortable so I knew something was wrong.
"I told him I’d been in West Yorkshire Police for 20 years and that my own son was killed so nothing he could say could be worse than that.”
Melanie, of Shipley, West Yorkshire, was told she had a 35cm tumour in her stomach but that there was a chance it could be a cyst. However, further tests revealed that she actually had a rare, aggressive, terminal cancer, myxoid liposarcoma, which grows on soft tissues, not organs.
It had spread from her stomach to her pelvis and pancreas. Melanie began aggressive chemotherapy but it soon
took its toll.
After the second session in December she was unable to eat or drink. “I lay on the sofa at home in silence. I told Ian, ‘I’m dying,’ as I felt my body shutting down.
“Nothing phases me, so Ian knew I was serious and he rushed me to hospital where we were told to prepare for bad news. I said, ‘I’m dying’ to the doctor and he said, ‘Yes, you are.’
"I sent Ian to get me a drink and I asked, ‘How long have I got?’ ‘A few days, maybe a week,’ said the doctor.
“I calmly accepted that. Nothing will ever be worse for me than losing Jord. I told Ian that we had to prepare the family now.
“Tom was devastated. ‘I’ve lost my brother and now I’m going to lose you,’ he wept. I told him, ‘I’m not going anywhere yet.’ I could not leave him until he was sturdier.
“Alone in my room, I pleaded out loud to Jordan: ‘I know I’m going to be with you soon, Jord, but if anyone is up there to help, let me have more time to sort my family out, to help Tom get in a better place.’
“When he died, I wanted to be with him but I had Tom to think of. Seeing him devastated made me determined not to die.”
Palliative care began and slowly Melanie began to improve and the family had time to come to terms with her prognosis.
Positive mental attitude
“I always believe good comes out of bad. So I was delighted when Tom’s partner, Gemma Oldroyd, 32, went for
a pregnancy scan on 14 February – Jordan’s birthday – where it was revealed she is having a boy – my first grandson after three granddaughters. He is due in August and will be named Noah James – the latter was Jordan’s middle name.”
Melanie has responded well to a less aggressive chemotherapy and she is taking things one day at a time. She blames the stress of Jordan’s death and the subsequent trial for her getting cancer and her mum, Marie Britton, suddenly dying of a heart attack on the first day of the trial.
“I don’t feel anything towards his killer. Nothing can be as bad as losing my son and I believe the stress of that caused the cancer.
“I’ve had a good life and I have been given time for some reason. I’m not scared of dying – it will be worse for those I leave behind as I cross over to be with Jord, Mum and Dad.”
The Christmas before Jordan was killed, he and Tom bought Melanie a parachute simulation experience as a gift. “Jord laughed, saying he couldn’t wait to see me in the outfit – but he never did,” she says.
On 11 June, Melanie will be doing a parachute jump at Bridlington in East Yorkshire to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and the Jordan Sinnott Foundation Trust, which was set up after his death to provide support to disadvantaged young people to help them engage in sport.
“Life is funny, how it maps out. It is unfair and can be cruel but we have to live for the day. I remain positive as it helps my family – and that is all that matters to me.
“It really is a b*****y good life – so keep smiling. I do.”
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