Help us give brave Emma dream Caribbean holiday (From Echo)

Pals staging street-dance contest for terminally-ill 22-year-old

4:00pm Wednesday 27th June 2012 in Basildon By Emma Palmer

FRIENDS of a young woman dying from a brain tumour are pulling out all the stops to send her on a dream holiday.

Emma Bruton, 22, has been given two years to live by doctors after they diagnosed her with a brain tumour the size of an orange.

Emma of Vange Hill Drive, Vange, has endured four bouts of chemotherapy and had surgery to remove 90 per cent of the cancerous lump.

However, she has been told she has little chance of survival and now has to use a wheelchair after being left unable to move the right side of her body.

To lift Emma’s spirits, her friend Vicki Saunders is staging a street-dance competition in the hope of buying her a better wheelchair and sending Emma on a peaceful holiday to the Carribean.

Emma said: “I feel angry. I feel cheated that I’m being robbed of my life at 22.

“I was told six months ago I could have anything from six months to two years. I’m trying to stay positive, but it’s hard.”

Emma will have a scan at Queen’s Hospital in Romford on July 5 which will determine if the gruelling treatment is working.

She said: “I will know then if it has shrunk at all, but they didn’t leave me with much hope.”

Emma’s symptoms began with heachaches and losing balance.

She recalled: “I was walking into walls. I knew something was wrong, but the doctors kept putting it down to my weight and the fact I smoked. But I knew my own body.

“I ended up just collapsing at home on Boxing Day and being rushed to hospital. Christmas is never a good time for us as my dad passed away the Christmas before.

“I eventually had a scan and the tumour was diagnosed just before the New Year.”

Emma, who is a hairdresser and had dreams of opening her own salon, says the support of her family, including sister Rebecca, 18, who has given up her job to care for her, has been overwhelming.

Before she became ill, Emma was a member of the San Toy Dance Academy, based at Northlands Community Centre, Basildon.

Vicki, 34, who runs the group is organising the streetdance event for her friend and former student.

She said: “I’ve known Emma for a long time and it’s hard to see her going through something as terrible as this.”

The contest is open to all and will be held on July 8 at the Civic Hall, in Blackshots Lane, Grays.

Entry is £10 in advance, £14 on the day. For more information, call Vicki on 07867 795744.

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