Life is rather funny, wouldn’t you say? There are so many things that are beyond our control that we can’t even begin to predict. From illnesses to finances, so many things can change so quickly. At times, people can get surprises that they never would have even dreamed of.
A Loving Father
When he heard the news, he was absolutely devastated. But how could all this even be possible? This devoted father of three had no reason whatsoever to believe that his sons were not his.
A Loving Father
Businessman And Millionaire
Sadly, he would eventually realize that things had never truly been what they seemed. He as about to realize that, unbeknownst to him, he was living a huge lie. However, what did he plan to do about this?
Businessman And Millionaire
Three Kids
He planning to make the traitress pay for what she had done. Richard Mason is now 55 years old. This millionaire and businessman is originally from the United Kingdom and has accomplished a lot in his life.
Three Kids
High Settlement
He co-founded MoneySupermarket.com, which is a successful price comparison website. At the time, he had been married to a woman called Kate. The two of them first met when they were working at a bank together during the 1980s.
High Settlement
The Day Everything Changed
They welcomed three lovely children together. Their eldest son is Will, and he is 23 years old. They have 19-year-old twins called Joel and Ed as well. However, Richard and Kate found their marriage on the rocks at the start of 2007.
The Day Everything Changed
Shocking Results
By the beginning of 2008, they opted to go their separate ways and finally get a divorce. However, Richard did not have any regrets about the marriage at all, even though it had ended badly.
Shocking Results
Horrible News
Even though they have split up and gotten a divorce, he was still there to love his sons and provide for them with anything they’d need. The financial settlement reported that Kate had a lump sum of $5 million that included the tuition fees for three sons.
Horrible News
Not For Long
Despite this, she “hounded me for years… and tried to make me pay more,” according to Richard. As far as he was concerned, the boys were the only good thing to have come out of their “cold and joyless” marriage.
Not For Long
In Disbelief
Unbeknownst to him, however, there was a surprise waiting for him Let us fast forward to 2016. By then, Richard and Kate had been divorced for a decade already. This was the time that he discovered a shocking truth about the life he was living.
In Disbelief
Grasping At Straws
This rich businessman got up and unwittingly prepared to go to his doctor’s appointment. It ended up changing everything. He did not know that he would be furious and shocked in only a matter of hours.
Grasping At Straws
Feeling Dazed
It was supposed to be just another regular check-up with the doctor. He had no idea whatsoever that it was going to change everything for him. Nothing about this situation was standard!
Feeling Dazed
Almost 100% Sure
The doctor performed a couple of tests, but Richard did not expect that the results were going to turn his life upside down. However, tragedy struck when he received the news that he had cystic fibrosis.
Almost 100% Sure
Looking For Answers
This was not the end of the story just yet. Cystic fibrosis comes with persistent lung infections. After some time, it will damage the lungs and reduce their capacity. Breathing will eventually get more and more difficult as time passes by.
Looking For Answers
Deny It All
It is genetic, and his sister also succumbed to the disease a couple of years in the past. He felt devastated and started to panic. Among other things, he was worried that he would pass it on to his kids.
Deny It All
The Truth
The doctor tried to comfort him by saying that his children couldn’t get it. Richard was relieved when he heard the medical professional say this. However, the relief did not last long because the doctor had more to say about it.
The Truth
Angry And Emotional
He was then told that there was a very specific reason that it was, in fact, impossible. This is the way he recalls the terrible moment when the rug was pulled from beneath his feet: “When the discussion then turned to fertility and he said, ‘Look, yourself and Emma – you know – you’re gonna have difficulty having children because you are, as a man with cystic fibrosis, infertile.’”
Angry And Emotional
Lack Of Legacy
How could that be right? There was a seed of hope inside his heart. Maybe it was a medical miracle. Maybe the diagnosis was wrong. “‘Well, you must have the diagnosis wrong because I’ve already got 3 boys,’” he said in response.
Lack Of Legacy
Her Confession
“I felt pleased to be able to tell him this because in my mind it proved his diagnosis was wrong,” he remembered. However, the doctor must have felt awkward and shocked because he only shook his head.
Her Confession
Into His Own Hands
It was then that Richard knew for a fact that he was only grasping at straws and nothing else whatsoever. The realization slowly dawned on the poor guy. The truth felt like a major punch to the gut.
Into His Own Hands
Always His “Dad”
Armed with this new knowledge, he looked back on his life with his ex and looked at all the details. His boys looked nothing like him, although they did look somewhat similar. His emotions went from heartbreak to rage as he whipped out his phone to contact Kate.
Always His “Dad”
The Consequences Of Her Lies
What did she have to say in response? In fury, he sent Kate a message. He wanted an explanation. “Hi, I went to the Liverpool Chest Hospital today… to finally receive my diagnosis that I have cystic fibrosis.
The Consequences Of Her Lies
Supporting Him
In their experience, they have never had a male with CF who has fathered a child, let alone three,” he wrote. He went on, “It is 98% certain that I am not the father of many children.” Even though Kate got the message, she did not reply right away.
Supporting Him
An Empty Victory
Seeing that he was not getting answers by being civil, Richard wanted to try another method instead. “I was hoping that you could relieve me of [the] further indignity [of more tests] by letting me know now if I am the father,” he told Kate.
An Empty Victory
His Challenge
“I am happy to go along with your advice as to how best tell the boys. But, if you force me to go through these extra tests then I shall be telling them as I wish.” Now cornered, she sent a reply in only a matter of minutes after that.
His Challenge
Heartbroken
“Of course the boys are yours, no matter what the science might suggest,” Kate replied. Richard could not believe it. She was denying everything flat-out. Fine, he thought. If she wanted to play this game, he could also play.
Heartbroken
Angry
He talked to his eldest son, then a student at a university, and told him all about it. However, how did Will take this shocking piece of information? “I told him I’d just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which he took surprisingly calmly,” Richard shared.
Angry
Everything Hurts
“And I said, ‘Yes, but one of the things that I’ve just been told is that it is extremely unlikely that someone with cystic fibrosis could father a child.’ He said, ‘I’m already ahead of you, Dad. You’re saying you’re probably not my father?’”
Everything Hurts
Confrontation
Richard was heartbroken to think that he was not the biological father of his sons. He recalled that “it would have been the hardest sentence to utter, and he did it for me.” He then told Will that he would remain his “dad, obviously,” even if he was starting to doubt that the young man carried his genes.
Confrontation
They Met
“It was very emotional but I was also very angry,” Richard explained. After all, he had two deal with two heartbreaking pieces of news. What did he plan to do about this? Richard believes that your kids define you.
They Met
Getting Help
Not only did he get diagnosed with a terrible disease, but he also found out that he did not have any birth children. His legacy was going to stop with him. This very thought was very heavy on him.
Getting Help
DNA Test
Two days after that, he heard back from Kate. Kate just got confronted by Will! She then called Richard to confess. She told him that she was seeing someone else during their marriage of 20 years.
DNA Test
Legal Proof
To add insult to this, Richard even got to meet him in passing. This man worked at Barclays Bank, and they often met at a London hotel when she traveled for work as part of her duties as a union official.
Legal Proof
Calling Dad
However, she continued to insist that he was the father of their kids. In the end, the only thing for him to do was to get help from the experts. Richard sought the help of a paternity fraud expert by the name of Roger Terrell.
Calling Dad
Heartache
He underwent several tests, which only confirmed that he was truly incapable of having kids. The next step to do was to get DNA samples from the boys. The DNA test results went on to prove that the twins were not related to him.
Heartache
Touching Message
What made things complicated was that the eldest child refused to give a DNA sample. Their eldest son only said, “As far as I’m concerned, he’s my dad and that’s that.” Despite this, Richard had enough proof to file a legal case against his ex-wife.
Touching Message
Exposed
In December 2016, he started the proceedings at Birmingham County Court. However, Will had something else to say to the man he called his dad. “My eldest told me, ‘Dad, if you sue Mum, I will never speak to you again,’” Richard said.
Exposed
An Empty Victory
The young man stayed true to his word. No doubt, it caused Richard a lot of heartaches: “the ripple effect of Kate’s lies has been massive.” However, the twins had a different reaction as the case went on.
An Empty Victory
Need To Know
The twins still think of him as their dad even though they now know that they are not related by blood. One of them even sent him such a touching message to show his support for Richard.
Need To Know
Not Giving Up
The message said, “Dad, as I explained from the beginning you would not be a dad to me regardless of all this. Of course, I’ll stay in touch, that will never change… I’m always here for you too and you will always be Dad. Love you x.”
Not Giving Up
Still His Sons
After her lies got exposed in court, Richard went on to win the case. His ex was ordered to pay him more than $300,000. She decided to settle but only under the condition that the real father of the boys would remain anonymous.
Still His Sons
Matrix
For Richard, it was nothing more than an empty victory. He had something to say to the real father of the boys as well. He “would like the biological father to read this article and come forward.”
Matrix
That was what he said because he thought that the boys needed to know who the man was. He added, “Not least for the boys’ sake because they will want to know who their real father is, even if hopefully they will always think of me as their dad.”
Sueing
After everything, Richard wasn’t ready to give up just yet. He wanted to locate his sons’ real father. He even went on to offer an incredible £5,000 reward for any information that could help find him.
Sueing
Breaking The Silence
One reason for this is because the anonymous man did nothing to help raise the boys financially. Richard said to a news outlet, “I still regard them as my boys even though I’m not their biological father, and I miss them so much.”
Breaking The Silence
Huge Secret
Going further into the case, it’s been found that Mrs. Mason was suddenly interested in Judaism when she first became pregnant. She even insisted on the boys having a Jewish middle name. Mr. Mason believes this to be a clue to the real dad’s identity.
Huge Secret
Years
“You don’t know what’s real and what isn’t — it’s as if I’m living in The Matrix,” Richard said. “Someone says to you, ‘All you know and everything you thought solid and true is not real, and never did exist. You are not a father, you are not able to have kids, your name will not continue’.”
Years
The Real Reason
“I still see what the boys are doing on Facebook and it’s heart-wrenching.” “It’s all been taken away from me.” Richard continued. It took ten whole years for his ex-wife to confess after they’d divorced.
The Real Reason
Why Now?
He’d been ordered to pay a £4 million settlement at the time of the divorce. As for the reason Richard chose to sue his ex-wife, he said, “The boys have heard their mother lie over years and years, whether about the affair or their paternity. I wanted to give them a better role model.”
Why Now
Pleading
“They’re very clever boys and because of the way I brought them up to do the right thing, I hoped they – now grown men – would understand that I needed to take that decision.” This statement came just days after one of the twins – Joel – decided to break his silence.
Pleading
The Betrayal
He said Richard was “manipulative”. This happened to be on the same day that Mr. Mason made an emotional plea on TV for his sons to make contact. This huge secret was also hidden from the three boys.
The Betrayal
Holding Back Tears
Joel said he still had no interest in finding out who his real father is. Not to mention, he hadn’t had a falling out with his mother over it. He said, “It didn’t hurt me because he hadn’t been my dad for a few years.”
Holding Back Tears
Honest People
“I felt nothing. I haven’t asked mum who our real dad is, I’m sure she’d tell me but I don’t want to know.” While he said they haven’t spoken in years, Joel also said he and Richard weren’t “estranged”.
Honest People
Bad News
He couldn’t figure out why Richard was so desperate to find out who their real father is. Especially when all three boys weren’t interested. The reason Joel hadn’t been speaking to Richard? “I haven’t been speaking to him for several years because of his behavior.”
Bad News
Savior
“He’s a very manipulative man, not the kind of person you want to be with. I started noticing this when I was 15. But he’s still my dad and I’m not going to look for my real one.” For another thing, Joel had a serious question for Richard.
Savior
All Along
“He’s known for two years that he’s not our real dad so why do all this now?” He added that his twin, Ed, is the only of the three sons who is on speaking terms with Richard. When Richard appeared on TV, he pleaded.
All Along
Special Message
“Boys, I haven’t done anything wrong at all. I love you and my door’s always open. I’ve got the kettle waiting to go on, a six-pack of beer, just come round, you’ll get the biggest hug ever. Let’s cry, let’s just hug, let’s just get back to where we were before.”
Special Message
There’s More
That was not all Richard had to say, however. “And just have a word with your mum, tell her to stop being so daft.” On top of all that, he confessed that when he found out about this betrayal, he wanted to “get a hammer”. Yikes.
There’s More
Emotional
As he struggled to speak, he held back tears, saying, “When something like that happens to you, you suddenly feel this betrayal, this bitterness and sort of anger you can’t explain. I’m still their dad.”
Emotional
Something Else
“Rather than get a hammer and go and confront her, I thought ‘what can I do? We’re a civilized country’.” That wasn’t all, however. Richard continued, “I’ve always taught them to be straight forward and honest.”
Something Else
Bad News
“What you should do is go to law. It was like being hit by a hammer. It was like the world had just fallen away.” “I felt like, on the one hand, I’d just been told I had a terminal illness, on the other, finding out the boys weren’t mine was just very, very hard.”
Bad News
Heartbroken
It turns out that Richard was so heartbroken that he almost took his own life after he received the news. He added, “Imagine being told you are going to die and your three sons are not your own – my life fell apart.”
Heartbroken
Helping
His new wife, Emma, is helping him get through the trauma according to Richard. She cannot conceive after a cancer battle. He said, “But what stopped me was the love I feel for Emma. She is my soulmate, and has got me through all this trauma.”
Helping
Not All
However, that was not everything. Just weeks after Richard was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, doctors confirmed that his second wife, Emma, had breast cancer. Naturally, the two were heartbroken, especially since they were trying for a baby.
Not All
Chemo
And so, Emma underwent grueling chemotherapy and radiation treatments before getting a mastectomy. Since then, she’d revealed that she would need even more surgeries since cancer she had was an “aggressive genetic cancer”.
Chemo
Justified
While on the TV show, Emma said that her husband, Richard, was justified in his legal action and what he did about the situation. She said, “You just can’t get away with no consequences. All Richard did was give her a legal and financial thump in the stomach.”
Justified
Precious Time
Emma went on, adding that the boys should get in touch so they can all spend some precious time together in the “years we have left”. However, it seems that the boys aren’t all that interested after everything that has happened up to that point.
Precious Time
No Changing Their Minds
All the emotional and heartfelt speeches that were given by both Richard and Emma didn’t seem to sway them. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that mainly affects the lungs and the digestive system.
No Changing Their Minds
Complications
It causes a build-up of mucus in the lungs as well as in other organs. It can cause complications such as liver disease and diabetes. Unfortunately, many lives are cut short by this disease seeing as it has no cure yet.
Complications
Treatments
However, some treatments can manage the symptoms of the disease and improve the quality of the patient’s life. For instance, antibiotics are an important part of regular care. Another way to reduce the patient’s risk of lung infection is by washing hands frequently.
Treatments
Flu Shot
More ways to reduce the risk of a CF patient getting lung infections is by getting a flu shot every year, not smoking and avoiding second-hand smoke, and avoiding unnecessary contact with people who have colds or other contagious illnesses.
Flu Shot
Other Ways
There are other ways in which CF can be managed that don’t involve the airways. Implanted devices can be used for managing chronic conditions in a less intrusive way. They will allow long-term access to the bloodstream for the administration of drugs.
Other Ways
Airway Clearance Therapy
CF can be treated with a special therapy called, Airway Clearance Therapy. This is performed with manual chest physiotherapy or a special machine called “VEST.” It essentially works by moving the mucus around in the airways to help you cough.
Airway Clearance Therapy
Mucus Thinning Meds
Before someone goes through with ACT, a nebulizer or inhaler is typically used. Albuterol is a common medicine used that clears airways and helps remove mucus, also, an individual can try Dornase alpha to thin the mucus or Hypertonic Saline solution to restore the moisture to the cell surface in the airway path.
Mucus Thinning Meds
Enzymes And Nutrients
Pancreatic enzyme therapies are very important because they aid the body in absorbing food and other nutrients. They should be distributed pre and post meals, or as a snack. It is also recommended that people with CF consume vitamins absorbed with fat.
Enzyme And Nutrients
Antiinflammatories
Antibiotics are usually used when there is a buildup of bacteria in mucus. They can be helpful when treating CF and can be consumed orally, through inhalation, or in more serious conditions, intravenously.
Antiinflammatories
Diet
As we’ve said, CF can affect the digestive system. This means that patients should discuss their diet with their doctor. On top of that, the patient will most likely require supplements to make sure they don’t have any nutritional deficiencies.
Diet
Fruits
Fruits are loaded with antioxidants and fiber, which can lower intestinal blockages. Antioxidants can fight bacterial infections and supplements reduce inflammation in patients with CF. Fruits containing Vitamin C are excellent since they are loaded with the antioxidant Vitamin C. These include apricots, bananas, blueberries, oranges, and more.
Fruits
Vegetables
Vegetables are another food group with so many health benefits. They are loaded in antioxidants, fiber, and have many crucial vitamins and minerals like calcium. The best to choose from are usually dark, leafy, veggies because they have Iron, Vitamin A, and Vitamin K. Vitamin K is included in any of the following arugula, Boy Choy, Broccoli, and Brussel sprouts.
Vegetables
Eggs
Patients with CF would benefit from protein-rich foods that help maintain muscle and physical activity. Protein can lower the chance for muscle loss and improve long term outcomes for people with CF. Eggs are a great source of protein because they have B-12 that helps build red blood cells and nerve functioning.
Eggs
Fish & Seafood
Another great source of protein is fish and seafood. They also are loaded with iron and Vitamin D, and a good way to increase your calorie and fat consumption. Vitamin D is especially important for individuals with CF because it helps keep bones healthy.
Fish & Seafood
Nuts
Nuts are a great snack for children and adults that have CF since they are high in calories and a healthy kind of fat. They also are a good source of protein and are rich in vitamins and minerals. Specifically, peanuts and almonds are a great source of vitamin E.
Nuts