A WOMAN is spearheading a fundraising drive after being inspired by the “amazing” care her mother received before her death.

Caroline Newman, 33, from Southend, set up the Havens Trio group to collect money for Havens Hospices, which care for people with life-limiting conditions.

Her mother, Barbara, who died in November 2013 aged 63, received care from the charity after being diagnosed with cancer in her nose in 2010.

Following surgery to remove the tumours, she was then diagnosed with a tumour in her stomach and cancer was then also found in her tear ducts, eyebrow, breast and later spread to her spleen, liver, bones and brain.

Her daughter said: “I was getting about three or four hours sleep a night. I was like a robot. I knew I couldn’t get sick or be ill because I had to be there for mum. She had some chemo and just went downhill. The onlyway I can describe it is role reversal, I was the adult and she was the child. I was having to sit there and take it all in and make the best decision for her. She went in for more chemo and it was like looking at a skeleton on the bed, she was so skinny.

“She got there at 9am and left at 7pm because it took that long to get the chemo into her body.

“It was burning her as it was going through.”

In the days that followed, an athome nurse from Fair Havens Hospice, in Westcliff, visited the family.

Caroline said: “It was a constant struggle and I was exhausted.

The at-home nurse went in to see mum and then sat with me.

She was just amazing. She told me not to feel guilty if I wasn’t there when it happened and she explained everything.

“She came back on the Saturday, but we didn’t have anyone on the Sunday because there wasn’t a nurse available.

“I later found out this was because of funding. I just don’t understand why the Government wouldn’t want to offer more support to a charity that does so much for people.

“It was a really hard time, especially through the night as you have no one to advise you.”

Following her mother’s death, Caroline received bereavement counselling from Havens Hospices.

Since then, she has enlisted the help of her friends, Michelle Newman and Holly Martin, and set up the Havens Trio, which is to hold its second quiz at the Park View Function Suite, in Chalkwell Park.

The event, on Thursday at 7pm, is part of the group’s Four Seasons quizzes and will be a Halloween special for autumn.

Tickets are £5 per person in advance, with a maximum of eight people per team.

For tickets email thehavens trio@gmail.com or call Hilary on 07891 514187.