An incredibly brave UK mom has tragically died just weeks after refusing vital treatment to have her miracle baby boy 15 weeks prematurely.

Lorraine Allard, 33, of St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, knew she had just months to live. She'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer in her fourth month of pregnancy. Allard was offered a termination at 23 weeks but refused. Determined to keep baby Liam, she even delayed her own critical treatment to give the baby a better chance of living. She told her devastated husband Martyn: "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

Liam was born almost four months early. Lorraine hugged and cuddled him when he was just days old, as he lay in a hospital cot with tubes attached to his tiny body. Sadly, however, Liam and his mother had few chances to bond. Lorraine lost her fight for life last Friday, leaving devastated parents, Tom and Muriel Berry, husband Martyn and daughters Leah, 10, Amy, eight, and Courtney aged 20 months, as well as siblings Thomas, Joanne and Steven.

Tom says his daughter always put others first. "She lived for her husband and her children. She was a big personality with a heart of gold," he says.

Husband Martyn, 34, said Lorraine was uncomfortable throughout the pregnancy and doctors suspected she had gallstones, but scans showed she had two secondary tumors on her liver. The primary cancer was never found and it's believed to have been growing undiagnosed in her bowel for years.

Baby Liam is putting on weight and doing well in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after being born on November 18.

[ESTonline]