A MUM-OF-TWO has lost a battle with cancer aged 39 – as her fundraising mother has been given the devastating news she will also die of the disease.

Lisa Barton and her mother Glynis Alberts, 56, who has been battling breast cancer, were diagnosed within a month of each other.

Together they vowed to support each other and raise money for East Lancashire Hospice, where Lisa was treated for cancer of the spine.

Now as Glynis tries to come to terms with the death of her daughter two weeks ago, she has been told that the disease has entered her brain and is incurable.

The mum-of-three said: “Lisa’s death was so sad but we knew it was coming and she is in a better place now.

“She wasn’t just my daughter, she was my best friend. That’s how I will remember her.

“We went everywhere together and everybody knew us as a pair.

“We went on holiday together, we went out clubbing together, around town shopping, everywhere. We were basically with each other every day.”

While Lisa was cared for at the hospice, Glynis and Lisa’s sister Stacey held an all day fundraiser at the Mall shopping centre, in Blackburn.

The duo ran a stall selling handmade jewellery gifts and cards to help support the Lancashire Telegraph’s Raise the Roof appeal, which raised £125,000 to replace the hospice’s leaky roof.

But the day before the event Glynis, from Mill Hill, learned that her cancer had spread to her liver.

She said: “There was nothing I could do, I had promised to do the stall and I wasn’t going to let anybody down.

“Now it has gone in my brain. It’s incurable.”

At the height of Lisa’s illness, the family were dealt another blow when her home was hit by an arson attack.

Her eldest son Liam, 20, was forced to jump out of a bedroom as the house in Shakespeare Way was ravaged by fire. Fortunately her youngest son Bobby, 16, was not at home.

Glynis said: “Somebody passed a firework through the letterbox, one of those big rockets.

“The fire destroyed everything in the house.

“Luckily Lisa was in the hospice at the time because she would never have been able to get out. The stairs were all burnt down.

“She lost everything, but we couldn’t tell her.”

As the single mother’s condition deteriorated she was transferred between Royal Preston Hospital, the Royal Blackburn Hospital and the hospice.

But her mum said there was no doubt where the former carer was happiest.

She said: “We managed to get Lisa into the hospice because she loved being in that place.

“She would eat meals in there when she wouldn’t eat anything in hospital.

“As a family you know that cancer is around but until you go through it yourself you don’t realise the value of places like the hospice and that they are funded more or less entirely by volunteers and supporters.

“That’s why it meant so much for us to support Raise the Roof.”

Lisa’s funeral will be held on Monday, January 16 at 11am, with a service at St Aidan’s Church in Mill Hill.

The family have asked for any donations to be made to the hospice – but their fundraising efforts will not stop there.

Glynis said: “We said once we’ve got the funeral out of the way we’re going to do some more fundraising for them in Lisa’s memory.

“I’d like to put another stall on like I did before with Stacey and my daughter Kirsty.

“It means a lot to keep raising money for the charity because they do a brilliant job.”

Sharon Crymble, fundraising manager at the hospice, paid tribute to the family.

She said: “The courage and strength that Lisa and her mum Glynis showed at a time when there was so much else going on for both of them is unbelievable.

“When the Raise the Roof Appeal was first launched, Glynis rang me to say she wanted to help us to reach the target and told me how she was going to do it.

“Their dedication was amazing and Lisa told me she was passionate about raising funds to help others. They really did put others before themselves.

“Glynis has told me she will continue to fundraise for the hospice and I can’t express enough how grateful we are. Our thoughts are with the family at this time.”