Mother thy name is Bernadette

There is no sacrifice greater or more divine than laying ones life down for another. In this case, a mother for her child.

Mother's life gift to unborn baby

Adam Taylor with Nathan who was born fit and healthyTributes have been paid to a Teesside mother who sacrificed her own life to save that of her unborn baby.

Bernadette Mimura, 37, from Ingleby Barwick, was diagnosed with breast cancer one month into her pregnancy.

Doctors urged her to try life-saving drugs, but this would have meant terminating the pregnancy.

Ms Mimura refused the drugs and gave birth to her fit and healthy baby, but lived just long enough to see her son, Nathan, baptised.

Ms Mimura's partner Adam Taylor, 33, said doctors urged her to try life-saving drugs, but she would not give up on her baby.

Instead, she was given a mild form of chemotherapy to suppress the illness while she carried Nathan.

He was born two months premature after her calcium levels shot up and doctors induced him.