Single mum given just a year to live doesn't know how to break news to her children
A single mum who has been given less than a year to live doesn't want to break the news to her young children
A single mum who has been given just a year to live doesn't know how to break the devastating news to her children.
Louise Hayward, 48, and mum of three, is frantically trying to raise cash to support her two youngest kids - who will be raised by her sister when she dies.
Hayward was diagnosed with bowel cancer in November 2020, with it quickly spreading to her liver and lungs.
But after two years of chemotherapy, Hayward was told last November that she has less than a year to live.
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The mum has already told her son William, 19, about the bleak prognosis, but her daughter Faith, nine, and her youngest son Louie, seven, are unaware.
Hayward is now fundraising on GoFundMe to help support her children when she passes away, with over £8,000 raised in donations so far.
The mum, from Whitchurch, Bristol, said: "All of this is so scary - I was never expecting to be told I was dying.
"In November 2022, they told me there is nothing else they can do - I was devastated.
"I begged them to give me more chemotherapy - which they did - but it's hard to accept I am going to die soon.
"It's so unfair on my kids - they know about my cancer but I haven't been able to tell them I'm dying.
"It's so unfair on them - I just think, why did they have to be born into this life?
"How do I tell them they're going to lose their mum at such a young age?
"Any money I can save up for them before I pass will make it easier for them when I do."
In November 2020, Hayward was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer after noticing blood in her stool.
She put off going to the doctors because of the pandemic, but after suffering a severe incident where all she could do was 'sit on a towel to stop the bleeding', Hayward realised she had to go and get it checked out.
Two years later, the cancer was starting to affect her kidneys, when Hayward was delivered with the devastating prognosis.
When Hayward dies, her old sister Rachel will move in to parent Faith and Louie.
Hayward fears how her children will cope as she has 'done everything' for them as a single parent.
She doesn't even plan to have a funeral to limit her children's pain.
"I don't want to put my children through it twice - you lose somebody, then you live it all over again at the funeral," the mum said.
"My little one, Louie, especially relies on me. Faith and Louie know about the cancer, the chemo, and the pain I'm in - but only William knows I am dying.
"These past two years, even with cancer I have continued to look after them on my own. I did the housework, cooked, took them to school, on my own - looking at me even now, you'd never believe I was ill.
"It's so hard to accept that in reality, I am going to die soon."
She added: "It's just so unfair on my kids.
"I wonder why they had to be born into this life.
"How can I tell them they're going to lose their mum at such a young age?
"All I can do is try to raise some money for them after I have passed."
Callum Jones