A gran suffering from incurable cancer has one heartfelt dying wish - to make sure her best friend of more than 40 years is looked after.

Deb O’Rourke, 66, and Janet MacLeod, 72, met as teenagers when they both got jobs at the same children’s nursery.

The two women have been close mates ever since, living under the same roof, going on family holidays together and sharing “the rough with the smooth”.

Janet is godmother to Deb’s daughter, mum-of-two Jody, and when Janet fell sick with a lymphoma which affects her brain and mobility, divorcee Deb immediately stepped in to be her carer.

Her illness was diagnosed in August 2021 and forced them to leave their three-bedroom house in southeast London. They now live in a bungalow in Halling, near Rochester.

But they were dealt a cruel twist of fate in July this year when doctors told Deb that cancer they had discovered in her lungs had spread to her liver - and there was nothing more they could do.

The treatment at Medway Maritime Hospital took its toll and it soon became clear that she was incapable of tending to her friend’s everyday needs.

Speaking at her home in Essex Road, she said: “I had to make the heartbreaking decision of placing my friend in a care home.”

She contacted Medway Council’s social services department and was given a temporary place at Frindsbury Hall, a nursing care home in Strood where Deb or Jody, 44, visited her every day.

After eight weeks Janet was discharged from the home with a transfer to another residence, Byron Lodge in Rock Avenue, Gillingham.

Jody, who refers to Janet as her “auntie”, paid a visit to the premises beforehand and felt it was unsuitable as the rooms were too small and doorways not wide enough to accommodate her medical equipment including a wheelchair.

Deb said: “I was left with no alternative but to have her home despite still going through chemo and the trauma of my diagnosis.”

While care workers visit her daily, there are times when Deb has to undertake tasks which leave her “stressed” and too weak to complete.

She added: “At the moment we have been told there is nowhere nearby for her and she might have to go ‘out of borough’. But neither of us wants that.”

They are also currently appealing a review of their finances because they cannot afford the expensive fees care homes charge, which can, in some cases, be subsidised by the local authority.

Janet gave up her job working with special needs children in 2006 and spent time supporting Deb after she was told she had breast cancer, for which she is in remission, the year before.

Deb is now in palliative care and having immunotherapy injections every three weeks “for as long as it takes”.

She said: “We have both worked all our lives and put in a lot. But as you get older, you are treated like a number. It's sometimes like you don’t exist.

“I know my cancer is incurable and don’t know how long I’ve got. But the stress of Janet not having a place to love which she deserves is worse.

“It’s so sad to end life like this.

“I need to find somewhere for her before it’s too late.”