Linzi's Miracle Love Letters: Daughter's Letters Help Mum Beat Cancer

Linzi's Miracle Love Letters: Daughter's Letters Help Mum Beat Cancer

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This is an extraordinary tale of love and devotion

When doctors told Laura Binder that there was nothing they could do to save her from cancer, there was one person who refused to give up on her.

Whilst Laura was battling to survive breast cancer which had spread to her liver - her nine-year-old daughter Linzi gave her the best medicine she could have asked for.

With incredible devotion, every day for seven months she wrote her mum a letter - encouraging her to beat the terrible disease and urging her to stay alive.

And amazingly brave Linzi's barrage of love letters seems to have paid off.

When Laura underwent a scan eight weeks ago, doctors were amazed to discover the tumours on her liver had completely disappeared.

Her body is now completely cancer free - just eight months after the doctors told her there was nothing they could do to cure her.

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Laura, 32, who lives in Norwich with Linzi and her younger daughter, Alicia, two, says: 'It really is remarkable. I was so scared that I was going to die and leave my daughters without a mother.

'The doctors told me in February that my cancer had spread to the liver and they could try and control it but they couldn't cure it.

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But Linzi refused to give up on me and wrote me these wonderful letters every day ever since. She was determined that I wasn't going to die and I was going to get better. And her wonderful letters have helped a miracle happen.

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Laura went to her GP in January this year when her breast felt unusually hard. The doctor gave her antibiotics but she went back three times after it failed to get better.

She was then referred to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where a mammogram and a biopsy revealed the devastating news that she had breast cancer.

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'It was such a shock when I got the diagnosis,' says Laura.

'I never imagined it would be anything as serious as breast cancer. All I could think of was my two young daughters and how I couldn't leave them without a mum.'

But then a further scan just three weeks later revealed even more devastating news. The cancer had already spread to her liver.

'I was heartbroken. I had a mastectomy operation but it had already spread to my liver,' explains Laura.

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'The doctors told me that it couldn't be treated, they could just give me some chemotherapy treatment which could hopefully buy me some more time.

'So I took lots of photos of the children and we went on lots of outings. I was just desperate to spend as much time as I had left with them.'

But what Laura hadn't bargained for was the devotion of her elder daughter Linzi. Whilst her mum was given a course of chemotherapy treatment, she spent hours writing her heartbreaking love letters, urging her to get better. She gave a different letter to her mum every day.

One letter read: 'You are like the centre of a rose and you smell just like a beautiful red one. You can fight cancer. You can fight it. I love you!

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'It just brought tears to my eyes when I read Linzi's letters. I would look forward to getting them each day - it really brightened everything up for me,' says Laura.

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To read such devotion was so inspiring. I was exhausted from the chemotherapy and I lost all my hair. But her letters gave me the strength to fight on.

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Laura then went for a scan at the end of September, expecting to hear the worse news that the cancer had spread even further.

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But to her total amazement, the scan revealed no trace of any tumours. All the cancer had gone from her body:

'I just couldn't speak, I was in complete shock. To be told that there was nothing that could be done for me, and then finding out the cancer has completely gone was just incredible.

'The doctor just said to me that I was a miracle. And that's what it seemed like. I couldn't stop crying with relief.'

Laura broke the news to her daughters and she credits Linzi's devotion for helping her beat the disease.

;I went to pick her up from school the day I got my scan results and I told her the cancer had all gone. She just burst into tears and kept hugging me. She couldn't believe it either.

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I couldn't have done it without her. Her letters kept me going. The doctors can't explain why my cancer disappeared, but I can. Those letters gave me a reason to keep fighting.

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Commenting on Laura's incredible story, a spokesman for Cancer Research UK says: 'Occasionally it can happen that cancer goes completely into remission like this when it is thought there is no hope.

'The love from a daughter is a strong powerful thing. Positive thinking provides an incentive to get better. It's amazing how things like this can happen and there is no explanation for it.'

A spokeswoman for Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital said: 'We are delighted that Mrs Binder's latest scan showed a complete remission.'

What an amazing story!

Good luck Laura and Linzi!

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