You always hear that dog is man’s best friend, and for one Scottish man, that statement was true until his very end, and even beyond. Stuart Conaghan of Alloa, Scotland tragically had been battling cancer for over 8 years when the ruthless disease took him. His devoted dog, however, refused to let him travel to the other side of life alone.

Stuart was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011 when he was just 17-years-old.

As any teen would, he opted to fight it as hard as he could. He underwent round after round of chemotherapy and, as you can imagine, it often left him feeling wasted and worried.

Thankfully, though, Stuart met a French Bulldog who was determined to comfort him through it all, thick and thin. His name was Nero.

There were periods where Stuart would be doing well in his fight against cancer.

Earlier this year, doctors even thought the treatments were starting to work.

“He went into hospital to start chemo at the end of 2018 and he was then having scans every three months. At a scan in March, they said the chemo was working,” Stuart’s grieving mom, Fiona Conaghan, revealed in an interview with The Mirror UK.

Sadly, though, the cancer took a turn for the worst shortly after that, and his sweet dog refused to leave his owner’s side.

Just a couple of months after doctors told the family his chemo was starting to work, Stuart noticed a different problem altogether. Stuart had been with his girlfriend, Danielle, for over six years. She was also there with her boyfriend through his long, awful battle with cancer.

Though they had many things in common, they both loved to dote on their three dogs, Nero, Nala, and the puppy they made together, Amelia.

Stuart loved all 3 of his dogs, of course, but his dog Nero was like an extra, happy, lovable appendage.

“He had three dogs, but him and Nero were like one man and his dog. Nero was the dog which was always with him,” Fiona explains.

While Stuart was feeling better from the treatments, he finally decided to tie the knot with his longtime girlfriend and they got married this last January. The happily married couple decided to leave the dogs behind with family in May while they took a vacation and traveled to Spain. While they were there, though, Stuart started experiencing awful pain in his hand.

When the couple got back home, Stuart went in for a check-up to see what was wrong with his hand. In the meantime, his dog stayed with him 24/7.

The check-up came back with neutral results. Doctors couldn’t find anything that would be causing the pain in his hand, and so they sent him home. One month later in June, though, Stuart had to go back in because the pain was now affecting his whole arm.

When doctors took another scan, they were faced with the terrible truth. After all of his fighting, the cancer had still managed to spread. Scans showed that Stuart’s whole brain, pelvis, and his bones were riddled with the formidable cancer. Stuart’s case had become terminal.

Though his family knew that cancer could eventually take Stuart from them, they never thought they would lose him and his devoted dog on the same day, within the same hour.

“Stuart died about 1:15pm that day, and Nero died roughly 15 minutes later,” remembers Fiona.

Stuart spent as much time as he could with his wife at home, giving loads of love to his precious dog before he would have to say goodbye. He wanted to spend his final month in his parent’s home, the one he was born in. So, Danielle and he moved in with them until it was Stuart’s time. They had family looking after their dogs.

“We got Stuart home four weeks ago because he wanted to die at home because that’s where he was born. We cared for him at home. We expected it but it is still tough. It is still a shock and traumatic when it finally comes,” Fiona said.

The shock wasn’t yet over, though.

On August 11th, the day of 25-year-old Stuart’s passing, Danielle woke up to realize she’d broken her glasses. Knowing she had very little time left with her husband, she sent her dad to her and Stuart’s home to get pick up her spare pair.

When he arrived at the house, though, he realized Stuart’s faithful dog, Nero, wasn’t doing too well. He then rushed the two-year-old dog to the emergency vet clinic.

There, the vets told Daniell’s father that the dog had somehow ruptured his spleen. Tragically, the dog had died within 15 minutes of his beloved owner’s passing, proving that Nero truly would follow Stuart anywhere he went, even into eternity.

Though Danielle, Fiona, and all of Stuarts family and friends miss him terribly, it’s comforting to know that they went together, with a love so strong that even death couldn’t break it.

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H/T: Shareably