A BRAVE mum-of-four who has spent the last year fighting cancer has died.

Julie Wilson, 33, endured months of harrowing treatment after discovering she was suffering Hodgkin Lymphoma, which is cancer of the lymph glands.

The Honley woman was pregnant with her third child when doctors broke the devastating news last November.

But the positive mum waited to give birth to baby James 10 weeks early before starting chemotherapy to give her a chance of life.

She sadly died at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on November 8 after being struck down with pneumonia as she neared the end of her treatment.

Her partner Richard Davey now faces life alone with their children.

He said: “I feel so cheated. I had waited all my life for someone like her to come along.

“We had our whole life planned out together.

“It has left a huge hole.”

Today the Examiner reports on how this brave family is coping with their loss.

He's only ten months old but his smile hides the heartbreak of an entire family.

As little James Davey makes his first attempts at crawling, his grieving dad Richard can’t help but show his delight.

But behind the grins lie months of sadness as the Honley family adjusts to life without their ‘fun-loving’ mum Julie Wilson, who tragically died earlier this month.

The 33-year-old was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma while she was pregnant with little James last year.

Chronic back pain led medics to discover a large tumour in her spine needing immediate cancer treatment.

The couple – who have two other children, Jamie-Lee, 13, and seven-year old Joseph – faced an agonising choice whether to terminate the pregnancy or continue until Julie was 30 weeks.

They decided to wait and baby James was eventually born by Caesarean section on January 2, 2007, weighing 2lb 8oz.

Julie then began her cancer battle, undergoing chemotherapy once a fortnight at Leeds General Infirmary.

Richard said: “She lost her hair and went quite frail but she never complained.

“After six months, she was told she was in remission. We were ecstatic, knowing we could have a life again.

“We were even planning to get married in Barbados next year when her hair had grown back.

“She then noticed a lump under her arm and a scan showed it had come back – just when we thought it was all over.”

Julie chose to undergo further chemotherapy at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in October so she could be closer to her family.

While there, medics performed a routine procedure to insert a special tube for drugs into her chest, because her veins were so badly damaged.

The wound became infected and she became poorly and confused. She was eventually admitted for treatment and put on antibiotics.

But just a week after coming into hospital she deteriorated, losing consciousness.

She was transferred to the intensive care unit on a life support machine but never regained consciousness.

Doctors said she died on November 8 of pneumonia and a condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Richard added: “It is just so unfair, after everything she has gone through.

“I just cannot come to terms with someone going through all that pain and beating it, to then go into hospital and die of an infection.

“It has left my life in complete turmoil. It is unbearable.

“She was such a fun-loving girl and was so positive.

“I just have to carry on now for the kids – that’s what she would have wanted.”