THE wife of a lung cancer sufferer from Great Yarmouth has paid a moving tribute to the former Army officer after he lost his fight against the disease.

Gloria Solomon, who lived with husband Nick, 56, in Camden Place, said he had fought a long and hard battle since being diagnosed with the condition 21 months ago, even completing a 400-mile cycle ride to Oxford and back to raise money for charity after he bounced back to health.

But the cancer spread to his liver and brain.

The Cornishman, who became a plumber after leaving the Army, died at Northgate Hospital on April 14.

Mrs Solomon said: “Since Christmas, he started gradually going downhill. Over the last two weeks, it has been very serious. He could not hold his own weight. He could not take his own food.

“It was very sad. He was a very clever man, an ex Army officer and engineer.”

She said motor firm Ford had accepted one of his designs for Ford pick-up agricultural machinery and he was well-known in the Yarmouth area for his plumbing work.

“He was a very important guy and I am missing him like mad. We have had a house full of carers over the last few months, but now it is so quiet,” Mrs Solomon added.

Earlier this month, the Mercury reported her concerns about the treatment he received at the James Paget University Hospital following a stream of complaints about the hospital.

She pledged never again to put her husband through the ordeal of being on a general ward where she claims staff were unsure of even the basics – whether he had eaten, had a drink or had his medication.

The father-of-three succumbed to the fast-spreading small-cell cancer and added heart failure, epilepsy and diabetes to his list of problems.

l Mr Solomon’s funeral will be held at Gorleston Crematorium on Tuesday at midday. His ashes will be spread in the sea near his childhood home at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall.