TRIBUTES have been paid to a devoted mother-of-two and brave soldier who has died of cervical cancer.

Private Liane Roberson, of Ferryhill Station, County Durham, was 26 when she died in Darlington Memorial Hospital on Monday, November 14.

Her husband, Grant, a corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals, said he had lost his best friend and the perfect mother to their children, Abby, seven, and Keiran, one.

He said: “She never complained and she never gave up, right until the very end. She was so brave. We had made plans, I was going to leave the Army in two years and there were so many things we wanted to do that are all just gone now.

“But she was so pleased when she found out she was going to have a little boy and she enjoyed the first few months of his life massively.”

Pte Roberson joined the Royal Corps of Signals at 16, where the couple met in 2003, before they were married in Bishop Auckland in 2005.

She left to have her first child, but returned to service, with the Military Provost Guard Service, at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, before becoming pregnant again. Pte Roberson was diagnosed with cancer in May.

The Newcastle United fan refused to be beaten and hoped to be taken on for a clinical trial that might prolong her life while she set about raising money for a cancer charity that had helped her and supported her family.

Her mother, Janet Thistlethwaite, said: “It was devastating for us when we were told she had cervical cancer, but survival rates are very good, so we were all positive.

“She just wanted to live.

She wanted to be here for her children and her family.”

Elder sister Samantha Davies, 29, a corporal with the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, said: “The two children had their birthdays within the two weeks before she died. Even though we knew it was coming, we were still devastated.”

Younger sister Lucy Douglas, 18, said: “When she told us, she said, ‘Don’t you dare cry’, but she would try to comfort us, she was so brave.”

Family and friends will meet for a funeral service at 11am on Friday in Ferryhill Methodist Church, before a private cremation.