TWO young sisters raised almost £1,700 for two cancer charities after their mother received a shock diagnosis.

Sarah McDonald, who also has a three-year-old son Joseph, was about to graduate as a teacher earlier this year when doctors told her in May that she had cervical cancer.

The 30-year-old from Allerton had always been for smear tests and they results had always come back normal but doctors investigating another problem made the discovery.

It led to her needing an urgent biopsy and a hysterectomy to ultimately save her life.

“The diagnosis was a complete shock.

“It was only when the consultant told me they could not put the hysterectomy off until I’d been on holiday that I realised how serious it was,” she said.

“They told me the farm in Cumbria would be here next year and the year after that but I needed the surgery now.

“If I’d not gone to the doctor with my other problem my smear test would have been due next month and I would have gone and am 100 per cent sure it would have picked up on the cancer then.

“I’d had no symptoms of cervical cancer. It’s very common not to get any which is why women must go for their routine smears because they save lives.”

To keep her daughters, Meadow, seven, and Phoebe, six, busy while she was in hospital, Mrs McDonald she set them the special task of organising a coffee morning for Macmillan.

The girls arranged posters, games, stalls and raffles for the event at The Ridge Medical practice in Great Horton where their grandmother worked.

Meadow then decided to have her long hair cut and donated her 32cm plait to The Little Princess Trust so it could be turned into a wig for a young cancer patient.

The girls have since sent £575 to The Little Princess Trust and a further £1,112.36 to Macmillan.

Mrs McDonald, who has now got the all-clear, said: “The girls have been amazing and very brave. They have made me, their dad Karl and little brother Joseph extremely proud, making this year a happy and positive one for this family despite what we have been through.”

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