'How do you tell a 5-year-old Mummy's going to die?'

Sam had to tell her sons, aged three and five, that she has terminal cancer

A mum with terminal cancer has described how her diagnosis was a "death sentence" but her first thought was her children.

Sam, who lives with her husband, Rob, and sons Herbie, five, and Mickey, three, was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2021 and was in remission in March, when she last spoke to BBC South about the financial impacts of having the disease.

But just a month later, Sam, from Poole, Dorset, was told a different cancer was affecting her spine and bones.

Now the family is focussed on making positive memories, and Sam said it was her "dream" to take her children to Disneyland to "give them the biggest, best memory ever".

She said telling her children about her diagnosis was "very difficult".

"How do you tell a five-year-old with autism that mummy's got a disease that's going to kill her?" she said.

And for her three-year-old, she said she could not "make it make sense" to him.

"All you can do is just love them a little bit more," she said.

Sam said she let her children cut her hair to make them feel like they had some control.

"I didn't want them to wake up tomorrow and think 'oh god, mum's got no hair'," she said.

Sam let her sons cut her hair before it could fall out because of the chemotherapy

Now, the family have one focus - to have as much fun as possible, making memories for the children "to remember when I'm not here", said Sam.

"Our biggest goal at the moment is raising money to get them to Disneyland," she said.

But time, she said, is "of the essence".

"My cancer in my spine is spreading," she said.

"My bones are crumbling.

"I won't be mobile for much longer and I want to be able to give them the best memories that I can - having as much fun with me as they can."