Devastatingly, Paula was diagnosed with bowel cancer three years ago and in the summer revealed that the disease had spread to her lungs and is now incurable.
Speaking about her diagnosis, she told the Mirror: ‘It’s hard for all of us to get our heads around, but I’m trying to prepare them as much as possible.
‘I was on the school run with Tony last week and he turned the radio up, because there was a love song playing that he liked. He told me he was going to have it at his wedding.
‘It suddenly hit me that I won’t be at his wedding. I had my tears from him but it hurts so much that I won’t see him grow up or get married.’
Paula Hudgell created a safe and happy home for Tony, now 10, after he was so badly abused by his birth parents that he had to have both his legs amputated
Paula hugging her adopted son, Tony, now ten, in a park on August 11, 2018
Paula, who was awarded an OBE in 2022, said she saw her GP 14 times before she received a cancer diagnosis, saying she was repeatedly ‘fobbed off’.
She was told by doctors that her bouts of diarrhoea and constipation were most likely IBS and was sent home.
Paula said she lived with her symptoms for four years before she demanded a test for bowel cancer.
And after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, Paula was told she was cancer free.
But in July, she revealed on social media that the disease had returned and spread to one of her lungs.
‘It’s been a really tough few weeks,’ she penned in an emotional Instagram post.
‘In 2022, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer – and after feeling the best I have in years, I’ve now been hit with the heartbreaking news that it’s returned, and this time it’s also in my lung.
‘Stage 4. It’s been a huge shock, and it’s taken some time for us to get our heads around it.’
Sharing a photo on Instagram showing the marking on her skin from a portacath being fitted [a medical device used to administer treatments], she continued: ‘In ten days, I’ll start aggressive chemo.
Paula took to her Instagram to release the above statement in July regarding her recent diagnosis
Paula (pictured on this morning with Tony in 2025) has vowed to take on the ‘biggest fight of her life’ as she prepares to undergo aggressive chemotherapy treatment
‘We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but I’m ready to give this the biggest fight of my life.’
Tony was just six weeks old when he suffered multiple fractures, sepsis, organ failure and ultimately had to have both legs amputated.
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