Family of inspirational young Burnley mum of two who is battling bowel cancer raise £2,500 in three days

Donations came flooding in when Laura Doughty and her brother, Anthony Harker, announced they would be completing a sky dive challenge to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK.

As the money came in, and they smashed their £900 target by £1,000, the duo decided to donate £2,060 to the bowel cancer charity and start another fund for Pendleside Hospice with the remaining £530. This was at the request of Anthony's wife, Danielle, who was diagnosed with the disease in August last year.

Since then Danielle has received complementary therapy at the hospice, including reflexology and massage, along with counselling, and she wanted to show her thanks and appreciation to staff.

Danielle, who is 33, said: "The hospice have been amazing to both myself and my family. I cannot thank them enough for what they have done for us."

Danielle is manager of Starbucks, based at the Euro Garages Burnley barracks site. She met Anthony, also 33, seven years ago and they tied the knot in 2017. Anthony went to the former St Theodore's RC High School in Burnley.

Danielle's cancer was discovered while she was undergoing treatment for Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel condition she has suffered from for several years.

While medics believed Danielle's excruciating pain was due to the Crohn's her instinct told her it was more serious and she refused to be discharged from hospital until further tests were carried out.

Danielle, who is mum to Shae (three) and two-year-old Arlo, said: "I just knew something wasn't right because I was experiencing pain like never before."

Thanks to Danielle's insistence MRI and CT scans were carried out which revealed the devastating truth that the cancer was at stage three. Further tests revealed the cancer had spread to her womb and lymph nodes and she has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment

Doctors have said they need the tumour to shrink before they can perform a hysterectomy which rules out any possibility of Danielle having any more children in the future.

A former pupil at St Christopher's High School in Accrington, Danielle said: "It has been a devastating time but I have a wonderful family and friends who have been absolutely amazing and supportive, especially my mum, Suzanne Folley and Anthony's mum, Julie Richardson."

And Danielle herself was the inspiration for her sister in law Laura to do the skydive in August.

Laura (29) who is a viewing representative at Duckworth's estate agents in Burnley, said: "Danielle is the strongest person I know and her life has changed so dramatically, the things this beautiful young woman and her young family have had to go through is just simply not fair.

“Seeing Danielle's strength through this life changing situation is so inspiring, both Anthony and I wanted to do something in representation of her strength alongside raising money for these amazing charities.

"Bringing something positive out of this situation is what we are about, we want to raise hope and getting her story out there is extremely important to create this awareness.

"We would like to thank everyone so much for the overwhelming donations so far, it truly is so empowering to see."

Anyone who would like to donate to the fund for the hospice is asked to click HERE