A mum has told how her nine-year-old son was diagnosed with leukaemia just six weeks before she found out she had breast cancer.
In a cruel twist brave Abraham Moreno Edwards and his mum Amanda, 49, are now both having chemotherapy at the same time.
The schoolboy was diagnosed with two completely unrelated types of blood cancer just two weeks apart after went to get treated for what they thought was a cold.
Just six weeks later medics found a lump in his mum's left breast and she started her own cycle of chemo in a bid to shrink the tumours.
Mum-of-two Amanda said their heartbreaking joint battle has given them a unique bond and his bravery has helped her deal with her own cancer.
Amanda said: "My attitude is my son is extremely ill and fighting for his life - I've just got breast cancer.
"I'm very, very positive when it comes to myself because I have seen for myself what these children - my son included - go through.
"I have chemo once in three weeks. He goes through five days consecutively, and any break he gets is spent in hospital with side affects.
"I feel like in comparison I'm not going through a lot. They go through so much more and they do it with a smile on their faces, always happy.
"Abs knows that I know what he's going through. We have been bonded by it. It is a special bond only me and him know.
"We are a team. We have a joke about both being bald and who looks best. We try to laugh to keep our spirits up.
"But in truth it is very frightening. Our life is on hold and currently revolves around hospital appointments, we live from one to the next.
"But we just get on with it - we have to. What choice do we have."
He was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukaemia in February and immediately started chemotherapy.
"We went from having a cold, to blood tests to leukaemia in a day," said Amanda, a translator, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, who now lives in Spain.
He started chemotherapy but doctors noticed he wasn't responding as hoped and further tests revealed he also had myeloid leukaemia - a totally separate cancer - two weeks later.
"It's pure chance that he has both - just bad luck,"said Amanda.
"That first night in hospital was the worst time of my life. It was hell on earth and sitting their watching him sleep wondering what was going to happen.
"I had no idea you could silently cry so much without sobbing out loud. The tears just rolled down my face."
After she too was tragically diagnosed with cancer Amanda began chemotherapy in August and is half way through eight sessions. It is expected she will have a lumpectomy operation next year.
Abs' treatment is expected to last two years, and he is currently travelling back and forward from hospital up to four days a week for tests, chemo and medication.
The family live in Salto del Negro near Vélez-Málaga, Spain, where Amanda worked as a translator for expats, until she became ill.
Both her sons were born in Spain, and she is separated from their father José, 47, also Spanish.
Amanda's best friend Natalie Hancock, 50, is raising money to help them, with anything left over going towards a family Euro Disney trip, in years to come.
She plans to donate 20 per cent of anything raised to the volunteers at Abs' oncology ward, who provide children with books and toys.
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Culled from The Sun UK