A MUM with terminal cancer has had her wish for a last family Christmas come true.

Bernadette Scott of Albert Street, Stevenage, had always dreamed of spending Christmas with her whole family, including her six sisters and three brothers, but when the 61-year-old was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in August, that looked a remote possibility.

It looked even more remote when the former Tesco employee decided she no longer wanted to fight the disease and asked doctors at Lister Hospital to stop her treatment last Thursday.

It was this news that spurred her daughters Sarah Hudson and Marina King, and son Tony Scott, all from Stevenage, to swing into action, determined to make their mum’s dream come true.

Sarah, who had her wedding reception at Holiday Inn in St George’s Way in Stevenage three weeks ago, called the management and asked if they could supply a room for them to host an early family Christmas party.

The hotel agreed to give them a suite for free as well as provide the head chef to cook the food brought by the family and provide waiting staff.

A flurry of phone calls ensued and the whole family was brought together within 24 hours for Christmas dinner at the hotel on Saturday. Mrs Scott was brought from her hospital bed where she had had her hair and make-up done.

Sarah said: “It was horribly emotional. Mum did a little speech and it was hard to bear. At one point I said to mum ‘what are you thinking?’ She said ‘I’m just taking it all in’.

“We had a traditional Christmas dinner, with everything you can think of. It was mum’s dream. She always dreamed of a family Christmas since I can remember. We had secret Santa and my brother dressed up as Father Christmas. It was magical and emotional and memorable.”

The hotel’s revenue manager Scott Mills said he and general manager Gerard Ryan wanted to help make Bernadette’s dream come true.

“We knew the bride and groom and the history behind the family. We just wanted to help them be able to give their mum something that was very dear to her and help to support the family,” he said.

Sarah says she is taking her mum out of hospital to be with family when she and her husband Del move into their new home in Stevenage at the end of the month.