It suddenly hit me that I will not be at Tony's wedding. It just hurts so much that I won't see him grow up

PAULA Hudgell is a battler used to winning. She fought to make a safe and happy home for adopted son Tony whose birth parents abused him so badly his legs had to be amputated.

- EMMA PONSFORD

And she went to war to bring in Tony's Law - increasing sentences for child abuse, including a maximum life term for anyone who causes or allows the death of a child in their care.

Her fight won her an OBE in 2022 for her services to the prevention of child abuse and in 2024 Tony, then nine, became the youngest recipient of a New Year's Honour - the British Empire Medal for his services to the same cause.

Tony has also won a Daily Mirror Pride of Britain award. And the family launched the Tony Hudgell Foundation to enhance the lives of children affected by physical, emotional or psychological abuse.

But Paula, 58, now faces a battle she can't win terminal cancer. In her first interview since discovering in June that the disease has spread from her bowel to her lungs and abdomen, she tells how doctors had misdiagnosed her 14 times, taking four years to detect the disease.

Worried

But typically it is her eight children - Tony, now 11, Lacey, 13, Ben, 36, Ryan, 33, Chloe, 30, Kyle, 23, Jess, 19, Jaden, 18 and husband Mark, 61, that she worries about most.

"My prognosis has affected the entire family's mental health," says Paula. "It's hard for all of us to get our heads around, but I'm trying to prepare them as much as possible.

"Life has been so tough for Tony but he never complains so it breaks my heart to know he has approached his teachers at school to say he's 'worried about Mummy'.

"I was on the school run with him last week and he turned the radio up when a love song he liked was playing. He said he was going to have it at his wedding. It suddenly hit me that I won't be there. I won't see him grow up or get married. I'm devastated for him and all of my children.

But it shouldn't have been like this." First diagnosed with bowel cancer in February 2022, she is speaking out to urge anyone suspecting they have cancer to get tested quickly.