Maggie home for Christmas

Courageous mum Maggie, 46, has been given only four months to live.

But the mother-of-six is determined to keep fighting so she can see her children grow up. She remains positive and upbeat – although she was shocked and saddened by the death of Caroline Ferris-Brown (see front page) who raised £1,000 so Maggie could continue revolutionary hyperthermia treatment at a German clinic.

The former Cardinal Newman schoolgirl said: “I’m so disappointed that I didn’t speak to her. She put so much effort into helping me when she was so ill herself – she sounds such a unique and lovely lady.”

After Christmas Maggie will be going to a new clinic near Cologne which specialises in treating the immune system.

“I’ll be there a month and they’ll remove cells from my body, cultivate them and put them back,” she explained.

“I’m also going on a very strict regime of quark and cold pressed flax seed oil.

“It’s called the Budwig diet and it’s absolutely fascinating. The quark and oil are mixed together in a particular way that changes the molecular structure that makes it non-dairy.

“It’s had fantastic results and I’m happy to try anything. If it works, it works. And I’m also taking a series of supplements.”

Maggie becomes extremely passionate about the bad press alternative treatments seem to attract.

She said: “I tried chemotherapy pills and they didn’t work for me. I’ve been offered full brain radiation to shrink my brain tumours but there’s no guarantee – it might work, it might not. No-one questions that.

“But if I finish the Budwig diet and it fails, it’ll get slated.”

She and her husband David are taking their six children – Liam, twins Daniel and Anne, David, Cian and Fintan – with them to Germany for two weeks.

“I’m so excited,” Maggie said. “I’ve already told them because I’m hopeless at keeping secrets.”

> If you’d like to contribute to Maggie’s vital treatment, visit www.maggieshope.co.uk