Mum 'can't wait for chemo' after baby born 12 weeks early

A mother who gave birth to her daughter 12 weeks early in order to be treated for cancer says she "can't wait to start chemo".

Ally Louise Smith was born by C-section on Friday weighing just 2lb 5oz after her mother, Heidi Loughlin, was told she had to bring her treatment forward.

Ms Loughlin, 33, told BBC Points West Ally was "doing amazingly well".

"I want to fast-forward now until March when she will be coming home and my chemo will be over," she told the BBC.

'Light as toast'

Photographs of Ally, who is being treated in the neo natal intensive care unit, were released on Tuesday.

Ms Loughlin, a Metropolitan Police officer, from Portishead, North Somerset, told BBC Points West: "It's almost like lifting a piece of toast, that's how tiny she feels."

"She came out crying, which we really didn't expect because she is so little."

Ms Loughlin found out she had inflammatory breast cancer when she was 13 weeks pregnant.

Doctors gave her the option of terminating the pregnancy to begin aggressive chemotherapy.

But Ms Loughlin, who also has two little boys, decided to have the less aggressive chemotherapy to give the baby the best chance.

After the treatment failed, doctors said the risk to her was so big it was better to bring the birth forward.

Ms Loughlin said: "I would never do anything differently, she is worth every second of it."

She is due to start chemotherapy on 23 December, if she is sufficiently recovered from the Caesarean section.

"I'm looking forward to getting on with it now and to kicking this thing so that I can basically just get on with a normal life really."

"The bit that I'm dreading the most is going home for the first time and leaving her here... I'm dreading that part of it."

Ms Loughlin found out she had breast cancer when she was 13 weeks pregnant with her third child