A Bradford mum who has been told she has just months to live has been reunited with the sister she had not seen for 30 years.

And after the emotional reunion, Bernetta Serrant is hoping to travel to Mexico for one last bid to beat the cancer.

Bernetta and sister Geraldine were last together in 1974 in Leicester before the family split up and Bernetta moved to Bradford.

But when Geraldine, 45, now living in Northampton, spotted the national newspaper story about Bernetta's cancer struggle after it had first appeared in the Telegraph & Argus she knew she had to act.

Forty-two-year-old Bernetta hit the headlines after she married her long-term love Reynaldo in hospital after being told she had a tumour which was inoperable.

And earlier this year she went into remission and put her recovery down to radiotherapy and a herbal remedy.

Geraldine said: "A friend brought the newspaper round to show me and she said: 'That's your Bernetta, isn't it?'

"I sat down and wrote a letter and guessed at an address and it arrived on her birthday. I knew I had to see her."

The sisters exchanged letters and eventually met up for a reunion neither thought would ever happen.

Bernetta, of Fagley, recalls the moment she set eyes on the sister she last saw when she was 12.

She said: "I opened the door and just stared at this woman who was the double of mum. They have the same colouring and fair hair.

"At first I thought it was mum for a second and then when she spoke her accent was different and I realised and the penny dropped who she was and just hugged her.

"I invited her in and we started talking and just never stopped. It was as though we had never been apart. We stayed up until the morning laughing and joking.

"Both of us had been really worried about what we were going to say to each other and how we'd be. But it wasn't a problem at all. We are very similar. We are strong people and know what we want."

She added: "We had lived apart all those years and had been getting on with our lives. Neither of us had a reason really to get in touch after so long. I didn't expect to see Geraldine again.

"But it's great. She is my sister and part of my life."

Geraldine's initial letter had no proper address on it and they owe their reunion to the local postman who recognised the name and knew the door number.

After exchanging several letters she took the plunge and travelled up with her friend to meet Bernetta.

She recalled: "The night we sat up talking together was special. It was as though we had never been parted.

"The cancer is a terrible thing but it has brought us two together. I wish it wasn't in these circumstances, but then again, we might never have met up otherwise."

The visits are now tinged with sadness as Bernetta's cancer has returned. She had hoped to be able to live long enough to see children Liam, 16, Jade, 14, and two-year-old grandson Levi grow up.

But doctors are now saying she has months to live after a scan revealed cancer in her neck and chest. She is in constant pain.

But the family is hoping that she may prove them wrong again as she did after her marriage to Reynaldo.

The ceremony in Cookridge Hospital was brought forward because of her illness. She was later given the last rites and went into a coma.

But she claims taking a Indian herbal remedy brought about an amazing turnaround.

In January she was told she was in remission but has since been told the cancer has come back.

She said: "It is so cruel. It is the hardest thing not just for me to go through with it but for my children as well. They have gone through all this once, then been told their mum was better and are now facing it again. I would do anything to live on for them."

Now the race is on to raise money for a course of Issels treatment at a hospital in Mexico, if doctors say Bernetta is fit enough to travel.

It is available at a hospital near Tijuana and the treatment, over four weeks, claims to target the tumours and boost the body's immune system. Issels involves "cleansing" the patient's own blood to boost its cancer-fighting ability.

Cancer Research UK says there is not enough scientific and medical research to support its claims and warns people about the costs of an unproven treatment.

But Reynaldo said: "If this is her last chance to see her children grown up then we have to give it a try.

"The doctors are saying she has months but they are also saying she proved them wrong once before and she might do again. And if you get told that then you think you have to give it a go.

"If this is her last chance to see her children grown up then we have to give it a try.

"She proved the doctors wrong once before and she may do again."