A mum who "was always thinking of others before herself" died surrounded by family on Boxing Day.
Lynn Siner, from Huyton, died aged 50 after a battle with cancer at her home on December 26, 2018, after the family being told she had "days to live" in the October of that year.
Daughter Ashleigh has shared her family's story and how Marie Curie made Lynn's last Christmas very special.
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The 33-year-old said Christmas was a "special time" for her family and her mum also "absolutely loved it".
Ashleigh said her mum wanted to make Christmas "as normal as possible" despite the 50-year-old being very poorly and Marie Curie made sure to make this happen.
She said: " My mum was always thinking of others before herself even though she was so ill, and she wanted to try and make Christmas as normal as possible.
"It was our tradition every year for myself, my mum and my brother to go to London at the beginning of December for the weekend.
"My mum loved to go to Harrods and get her special presents from there. Obviously, she was too ill to go but she still wanted me to go and get everyone’s Christmas presents - she was ringing me from her bed at Marie Curie telling me what to buy from Harrods.
“While she was staying at Marie Curie, we brought one of her Christmas trees in from home and decorated it and put all the presents we had bought underneath – we wanted her room to feel very homely.
“Christmas was such a special time for our family as my mum absolutely loved it and looked forward to it all year.
"We enjoyed the build-up, doing Christmassy things and visiting the markets.
"Mum was too ill to go out to the Christmas markets, but Marie Curie had a special Christmas fayre in the hospice with stalls selling all types of things.
"All my family went along, and we really enjoyed it. It was perfect as it was all indoors, and we could easily push my mum in the wheelchair from her room and into the lift upstairs to visit the stalls.”
Lynn was also able to go home on Christmas Eve, thanks to the "amazing staff" at Marie Curie.
Ashleigh added: “We all stayed with mum on Christmas Eve and we opened our presents as normal on Christmas morning.
"After our Christmas lunch, my mum then fell asleep early afternoon and never really woke again apart from saying the odd sentences, and then she then passed away Boxing Day morning.
"I really do believe she got the strength to make sure she was there for the whole of Christmas Day.
"We were told in October that she only had days left to live but she fought on and I think once she was home, and saw us all together for one last Christmas, she was ready to go.
"Even though it was the worst time of our lives, we are so glad we got to spend that last Christmas together, and Marie Curie helped make that possible.”
Lynn was a health care assistant at Alder Hey Children's Hospital and Ashleigh said due to this she trusted the doctors and nurses at Marie Curie and felt "safe and secure" at the hospice.
Ashleigh and her family have raised thousands of pounds for Marie Curie and hopes to fundraise more in the future.
She said: “At the funeral, we asked for donations to Marie Curie rather than flowers and after that, I thought that I’d like to do other things to raise money for the charity to give something back and do something for my mum and the whole family.
“So, the first thing that we did was host charity night at a local social club with raffles, Irish Bingo and entertainment. We did a tombola too and got lots of prizes from different companies to auction for the raffle - it was amazing. We raised roughly £4,550 from that event.
“Then, when we took the money to Marie Curie and learnt about the Pay for a Day fundraising challenge where we could set ourselves the goal of raising enough money to pay to run the hospice for a whole day. So, we jumped at this and got on with planning our next event; a charity walk.
“It ended up being a fancy dress walk for family and friends mainly, starting at the Albert Dock and ending up at my mum’s house in Dovecot, where we had drinks to celebrate and toast mum. We walked over 10K and raised more than £3,000.”
“We plan on doing more fundraising for Marie Curie in the future too.”
To support Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal this March, visit mariecurie.org.uk
