A heartbroken wife has paid tribute to her best friend and husband following his tragic death just two months after he was diagnosed with cancer.

Garry Begg - a bricklayer and doting dad from Deal - died peacefully last Friday, aged 53, following a short battle with an aggressive form of the disease.

The much-loved family man had only married his partner of 10 years, Emma Begg, seven months before, and together they were looking forward to the future.

But in November their lives changed forever when Garry broke his arm after rolling over in bed, leaving him in excruciating pain.

Emma explains: "Builders often just brush aches and pains off because they think it will be because they have been lifting.

"But that night he was taken by ambulance to the QEQM, where luckily he had a very inquisitive doctor.

"They were going to send him away with a cast but this doctor said he wasn’t going to let him go because bones don’t just break by rolling over in bed. The next day he had every test going.

"At the end of the day we were told they found a lesion on his right lung and he had primary lung cancer and secondary bone cancer.

"It was stage four advanced, very aggressive, and in six or seven places in his body.

"We just couldn’t believe it."

Garry had always been fit and healthy but the illness began impacting his mobility, and his arm never healed.

Emma, 50, recalls: "I had to leave work and become his full-time carer.

"He had five rounds of radiotherapy with the view of starting chemotherapy last Friday.

"But in himself, he knew his body was giving up.

"I don’t think he really shared how much pain he was in because he was so dignified and proud.

"He opted to go to the hospice on the Wednesday. All his family came in and out.

"He died peacefully and we said our goodbyes on Friday. The speed of it is just terrible.

"As a person he wore his heart on his sleeve.

"He had no filter but you always knew where you stood with him.

"He was honest, an open book - he couldn’t lie. He was forthcoming, with the most wicked sense of humour.

"We had the best 10 years of our life together, he was my best friend.

"He accepted what was happening like the brave gentleman he is."

Garry lived in Albert Road, but was born at Buckland Hospital and grew up in Sholden with his mum Dianne, dad Gary, and sister Kerry.

While he shared 10 years with his wife, the couple have known each other since they were at school when Emma was best friends with Garry's sister.

However, the pair - who have three children between them - went on to have their own families before meeting again in their 40s.

Garry had a son Sonny, 19, and two stepsons, Harry, 28 and Alfy 22.

Sonny hopes to one day have a bench installed in his dad's honour along Deal pier - a place where they shared lots of memories.

Over the past few years Gary got his drone licence and enjoyed taking before and after pictures of projects he worked on, as well as aerial landscapes around Deal.

"I bought him his first drone on his birthday," remembers Emma.

"He took it out for a test run on the beach and lost it at sea.

"He could see the coordinates of where it was in the Channel, but there was no way of retrieving it.

"He just loved finding places to picture with his drone; he loved sunsets, sunrises, pictures of derelict buildings.

"He even took his drone on our honeymoon.

"We are devastated but there has been such an outpouring of love."

Many of Garry's drone photos can be purchased from The Saracens Head in Deal.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be made.