For­mer Gov­ern­ment pathol­o­gist Dr Neville Jankey died at age 75 at his Cas­cade home yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter a painful bat­tle with can­cer. Jankey's wife of 34 years, He­len, said he died in her arms. She said her hus­band had been beg­ging God to take him away. "He was work­ing up un­til two weeks ago but is the kind of per­son if he is not work­ing, that's the end," she said. He­len said Jankey had stopped eat­ing and be­came very frail and weak. "I too want­ed him to go. I didn't want him to suf­fer." Re­call­ing her last mo­ments with her hus­band, she said: "He was thirsty and asked for wa­ter. Those were his last words. "I said, 'you know, I think you will go to par­adise to­day'. He held my hands and then he died."

He­len said Jankey was a qui­et, bril­liant man who loved to feed his birds when he was at home. They have two adopt­ed daugh­ters. Col­leagues of Dr Jankey have told her the med­ical world not be the same with­out him, she said. "He was a ded­i­cat­ed per­son and was very hon­est. He was not at­tract­ed to mon­ey," she added. Jankey will be laid to rest on Thurs­day. The fu­ner­al ser­vice will be held at the St Ann's RC Church af­ter which he will be cre­mat­ed.