Family celebrate Christmas early after mum told she has weeks to live

Dawn Wood, 41, from Wednesbury, has a brain tumour and was told in August she is unlikely to survive much longer.

Charity Well Wishers organised presents for Dawn and husband Richard’s children Abbie aged 19, Caleb, nine, Lilah, six, and Poppie, four, and a tea party at Goscote Hospice, Walsall.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust’s charity Well Wishers provided food and Christmas decorations, Asda at St Matthews, Walsall, presented the children with Christmas pyjamas, slipper socks, hot chocolate, and toiletries and IT Consultant Amrik Singh, from Vibrant Networks in Walsall, donated four brightly coloured sit-on bean bags.

Dawn has had the tumour, which is the size of a golf ball and is called an anaplastic oligodendroglioma, since June 2012. Since then she has had five operations, plus radiotherapy and three stints of chemotherapy.

But the tumour is still growing and now interlocked with Dawn’s brain which would make further operations too dangerous.

Richard said: "We always knew the tumour was growing because it grew when Dawn was having chemotherapy.

"That’s when they gave us the news where she only has weeks or months to live. They said they can’t treat it and there’s nothing more they can do. When we were first told about the tumour, they said she might last 10-15 years and the first thing she said was ‘I’m going for 15’. Through every round of chemotherapy and radiotherapy she’s been so positive.”

One thing she hasn’t lost is her sense of humour. “She can still tell me off and she can kick me!” joked Richard. “We call the tumour a ‘cretin’ because of the trouble it causes.

"The last six weeks have probably been the hardest. Abbie has known from the start but I’ve had to explain to the other children that mummy is going to heaven.

"Poppie has autism and doesn’t speak at the moment but she understood what was going on. What they don’t understand is when."

Dawn stayed at Goscote Hospice at Walsall Palliative Centre for the maximum two-week stay before being transferred to Veronica House Nursing Home in Tipton, where she has been since December 7.

“I just get on with it,” said Dawn. “The only thing I can do is think positive and that’s what I do.”

It’s the simple pleasures that keep the family going. The couple had a ‘date night’ and shared a Chinese meal recently and Richard brings the children to see Dawn as much as they can.

He said: "We didn’t want to bring Christmas forward because we thought the children might remember it for the wrong reasons,” said Richard. “So the children just opened their main Christmas present and they put on the fluffy socks and blankets and sat on the bean bags.

"The hospice and Well Wishers charity were amazing and we’re so thankful and grateful to everyone for what they did."