A terminally-ill mother of three has described the response to a campaign to send her on a dream trip as ‘overwhelming’.

Laura Pugh, of St Martins, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2018, and was informed last week that there is no cure for her condition.

This prompted a response from a close friend to start raising funds to cover the costs of a dream holiday for Laura, her partner Neil and three children Emmiee, Elana and Harry.

Charlotte James set up a JustGiving page for Laura’s cause, which encouraged a number of people to do their bit to help.

The family are hoping to travel to America for their dream holiday together, having never travelled abroad before.

Laura, 35, said she has been blown away by the generous response from people so far. She said: “It all started with Charlotte with the JustGiving page, I put a status on Facebook encouraging people to tell people that they love them because life is too short.

“It’s just come about since then – I had an awful lot of messages from people offering support.“Charlotte said she wanted to help and asked if there’s anything she could do to help. I thought about it and as a family we’ve never actually been abroad together as a family because life, work and bills just sometimes get in the way of doing that. So, she said she’d set it up and see if the money can be raised to help us with that – since then the response has been overwhelming.

“Support at a time like this gives you that drive to fight, and it really does help to keep you positive during such a bad time.

“We’d like to go to Florida, but one of my children is nearly 17 so Disneyland isn’t quite her thing. So, our dream is really to go over to America and either do a campervan tour or do Disneyland – we’re just toying with the idea a little at the moment.”

She is hoping to go on the holiday with her partner Neil and three children Emmiee, Elana and Harry.

After her diagnosis, Laura underwent eight weeks of treatment before finding out from a consultant last week that her condition is now incurable.

She gave a special mention to those who have helped so far, and her family who have offered a huge amount of support.

“I did post a thank you message on my Facebook page, it would take too long to give thanks to everyone individually,” she said. “The lovely messages I’ve been sent and the support I’ve been given is so nice, especially in a time like now, it opens your eyes to how many nice people there actually are out there.

“It shows you the world isn’t all that bad.

“I know it’s a close-knit town, but I still didn’t expect it.

“My family are very supportive; I’ve got four brothers who are very supportive as is my mum.

“Unfortunately, my dad passed away a month after my diagnosis last year, and then my nan passed away in January as well. So, I’ve not only had to deal with the diagnosis, but also two people very close to me have died as well in such a short space of time.

“The family has had to deal with a lot, but they’ve remained so supportive.

“You never know what’s around the corner and you never know what life will throw at you.”

“It makes you realise how many people can take it for granted.

“You see a lot of bad things going on in the world and it just makes you think “why?” – life is just so precious.”

The JustGiving page encouraged others to do their bit for Laura’s cause – friend Sam Smith is holding a raffle for a personalised cushion, while Louise King of King’s Cake House is auctioning cakes and Loopy Cakes in Oswestry is holding a raffle for a cake.

Holly Thomas will be holding a fashion show, One Stop in Cabin Lane, Oswestry, has a Laura’s Fund charity box, and Sophie Penrose of The Enchanted Teepee Co. is selling raffle tickets for a magical sleepover for four priced at £5 each.

Sophie said: “The response so far has been amazing.

“I haven’t just had response online, but people have been giving money in the street and posting donations through the letterbox.

“To have had that response within a few days has been amazing, it goes to show how caring people can be.”

You can also donate via www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/caitlin-rose-james