Back in June, I was called by my mum, Ellie, at midnight on a Thursday evening. She doesn’t usually call me, so I immediately knew something was seriously wrong. When I picked it up, she mumbled: “Come and get me”.

Within minutes, I had hired a car, drove from London to her house in Surrey. It was 2 am and I found her semi-conscious and barely able to reach the door due to severe shooting pains up her spine. She struggled to open the front door to let me in, and as I picked her up off of a pile of her things (she is a hoarder), she whispered in my ear: “I have cancer. I didn’t want to disturb you from your work and exams. I have known for two years”.

I was shocked. We hugged and cried, while I tried to process what my mum had just told me.

I had to carry her to the car to take her to A&E, she couldn't even walk. We arrived at Frimley Park Hospital, where immediately she was admitted and examined. She received an appointment with a cancer surgeon the following day.

Over the next five days she had a number of tests, and the results came back confirming the surgeon’s suspicion: stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

The cancer had spread to her liver and bones in her right arm, her spine and her skull. The cancer is incurable and the prognosis, unknown. The oncologist explained that other patients with her type of cancer have a life expectancy of about two years, so it's likely she doesn’t have a lot of time left with us.

Life has been difficult for my mum. She has gone through abusive relationships when I was growing up. Her hoarding is a consequence. We became distant, and many times she avoided me while I was focused on getting financially independent and building a career. She didn't understand that it wasn't a distraction for me to talk to her, it was love.

It breaks my heart knowing that she didn't tell me she has been severely ill for two years because she didn't want to get in my way. I regret not going to see her more often, and finding strength to insist on it. Now I understand her reactions as part of her mental condition. It never occurred to me that on top of her mental health issues, she would be facing cancer as she is now.

Unfortunately, I cannot go back in time. I am not able to change what happened and get her to be treated at the beginning of her illness, but I've been doing my best to make her comfortable.

During the past couple of months, I have been caring for my mother, taken power of attorney, taken control of her finances, remortgaging her house, and arranging benefits. It is a lot of work and money invested, which I've been doing on my own as no other family member is getting involved. We don't have savings anymore.

Although this is very hard, it brought us closer. I was given the opportunity to spend time with her like never before, and learn things about her I didn't know about. Therefore, I would like to make some of her last wishes come true.

I'd like to make her enjoy the time she has left, before she loses the mental capacity to do so. With all our financial resources going into securing her care and arranging her affairs, I would like to ask for your help.

I'd like to raise £6,000 in total, of which £3,000 would go towards:

- a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland, her birthplace. She hasn’t been able to travel in over 20 years because she couldn't afford it, raising two kids on her own.

- a spa break, so she can get away from the everyday struggle and forget her illness for a brief moment

- landscaping her garden. When I asked what she enjoyed doing the most, she answered: “Gardening!”, without hesitating. But her garden is now taken by her hoarding habits, we need financial help to clean it up.

The other £3,000 I would like to donate to Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. This will be the hospice that will take care of my mother at the ‘end of life’ stage and I want to give back to them.

Your support would mean everything to us. Even the smallest amount will help make one of those things happen for her, and I know that it will give her a lot of much-deserved relief and happiness.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.