A few days before discharge he told us he wanted to go back to his hometown, many thousands of kilometres away. He wanted to see his relatives and friends one last time. He said that if he didn’t do this he would die with everlasting regret. A final visit to where he had grown up, a chance to taste his favourite foods again, in his favourite eating places. We thought he had a window of opportunity to successfully make the trip back home. We estimated that in the next months, he would become too unwell to travel. We encouraged him to make travel plans as soon as possible and offered to talk to his son. He declined our offer and wanted to discuss it with his son personally.

He said he would have to convince his son. His son wanted him to have further treatment as soon as possible. Our patient wasn’t convinced that the therapy would be effective, but he had tried for the sake of his family. The treatments had been hard to handle, with lots of side effects. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t want any further treatments, but his son still needed his support after a relationship break-up.

Over the next months, our patient didn’t go home but had more cycles of treatment. As his overall condition worsened he still talked about making his big trip home. Eventually, long-distance travel stopped being an option. The window of opportunity had slammed shut and even car trips around the country seemed too risky.

We received the news that our patient had been on a trip to another city when he suddenly deteriorated. He ended up dying in the local hospital, far from home. Making the return trip back of hundreds of kilometres would not have been easy for his family.

We wish him safe travels on his next journey.