UK mum with terminal brain cancer hopes life-saving treatment would buy her more time with son, 6

In a bid to buy some more time with her family, a mother to a six-year-old son is prepping to undergo a treatment in Prague, which might prolong her life.

Amelia Martin from Leicester in England was diagnosed with papillary meningioma, a rare and aggressive form of a brain tumour almost four years back. While surgery and radiotherapy helped remove a slow-growing tumour in the initial days, it, unfortunately, returned a year later. And the doctor's stance was that there was nothing more they could do to help 41-year-old.

"It's sad, I had been confident because I didn't think it would grow back so quickly. It was really upsetting," the mum said, recalling her experience to The Sun. Asides the symptoms of cancer, Martin explained that she has also been facing facial weakness, dizziness and hearing loss.

Explaining her ordeal to Mirror Online, she added: "Last time the direction the tumour was growing in was making me sick. This time it's growing in another direction, so I'm not feeling as poorly but it is affecting the muscles on the left-hand side of my face."

"I'm not in as much pain as I thought I would be, though," said the mother-of-one.

But the horror of the prognosis has hardly been able to dampen her spirits as she feels more determined than ever to fight cancer for the sake of her 6-year-old boy.

With support from her husband Alex Martin, cancer-stricken Amelia is now planning to travel to the capital city of the Czech Republic, where she will be undergoing the highly advanced proton beam therapy at the Proton Therapy Centre in Prague.

The pioneering treatment that makes use of positively charged particles to specifically target and destroy cancer cells is currently not available in the UK, as per reports.

"One of the biggest benefits of proton therapy is that the vast majority of energy is delivered directly to the tumour, preserving healthy tissue in front of the tumour and preventing damage to tissue behind it," said Jiri Kubes, medical director of Prague's Proton Therapy Centre, as quoted by The Sun.

He explained, "While proton therapy is by no means a miracle cure, in some cases where the cancer is particularly aggressive it can buy precious time."

Meanwhile, for Martin – whose friends and family have even started a fundraising campaign to raise £75,000 for the treatment – the therapy would mean more time with her young son.

"I just want the opportunity to see Dylan growing up. I can't bear the thought of not being here for him," she said. "If it was just me it wouldn't matter so much, but I want it for my son and my family."