Of course not. Even I don't think my mum really deserved a free cancel in her case. My sympathy to OP Louise...my dad went in a similar way.

But I'm just not optimistic about CX's response. I think they probably have a canned response expressing "heartfelt" sympathy and perhaps even trying a bit of empathy but not yielding an inch or even a millimetre on refund.

This is just the state of consumer rights in Hong Kong and CX's level of customer service in particular. You have to media blackmail them or physically assault them in order to get them to do something.

The only substantive concession you can reasonably aim for is an extension to give him time to get better.