https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boy-8-orphaned-mum-35-23358384?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_campaign=12at12_newsletter2&utm_medium=emailBoy, 8, orphaned as mum, 35, dies of cancer just years after tragic death of dad
After being given just months to live with terminal cancer, 35-year-old Vicky Myers, from Thornaby, North Yorkshire, "hung on as much as she could" to make more memories with her son William
By Chris Kitching Senior News Reporter
09:57, 22 JAN 2021 Updated10:00, 22 JAN 2021
An eight-year-old boy has been left orphaned after his mum died of terminal cancer just years after he tragically lost his father. Vicky Myers, 35, courageously battled the disease and did everything possible in her final months to make more memories with her son William, whose dad John died in 2015. Leaving William without a parent was her "biggest fear" and, while undergoing gruelling treatment, she "hung on as much as she could" to have more time with him, including one last Christmas at home, said longtime friend Lorraine Mulgrew. After beating triple-negative breast cancer and just days after her own father died, brave Vicky was given the devastating news in February last year that the disease had spread through her body and she had as little as three months to live. The mum, from Thornaby, North Yorkshire, had survived with incurable cancer for almost a year when she lost her fight on January 11. It came just over two weeks after one final Christmas with her son and her retired mother Janet, who is now caring for William with her husband (Vicky's stepdad) Keith. Lorraine, 36, said: "She hung on as much as she could to do as much as she could for William. That was her biggest fear, leaving William without a parent. She’s the most courageous person I have ever met. Everything that she went through, it was all for William."
Lorraine, who has set up a JustGiving page to support William, added: "He is struggling, as anybody would. He just lost his mum and is facing life without his parents."
The boy's father, musician John Myers, was only 32 when he died tragically in 2015. John and Vicky met almost 15 years ago while he was performing in Thornaby. Two years after his death, Vicky, who worked as a receptionist at a GP's surgery until her terminal diagnosis, discovered a lump in one of her breasts. After gruelling rounds of treatment, scans didn't show any signs of cancer. But she started having pains in October 2019 and collapsed in February 2020. She was told that she had terminal cancer after scans showed tumours in her liver and rib cage. The diagnosis came just days after her dad Jeff, 66, died following long-term health problems.
