A MOTHER who lost her model daughter and husband to cancer within months of each other has raised over £10,000 for charity.

Sharon Chorley’s daughter, Toni, died aged 23, two days after Christmas in 2006 following a two-year battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after the cancer returned for a third time.

Her death came three months after her father, Phil, died aged 61, after suffering from bowel cancer.

After the double tragedy, Mrs Chorley, who lives in Blackhill, Consett, County Durham, decided to start raising money for charity and threw herself into her women’s fashion business.

The Northern Echo: CHARITY: Michelle Muir, from Macmillan Cancer Support and fundraiser Sharon Chorley
CHARITY: Michelle Muir, from Macmillan Cancer Support and fundraiser Sharon Chorley

A party, dubbed the Jellytots Ball, was held at the Derwent Manor Hotel, near Consett, on August 31, to commemorate what would have been Toni’s 30th birthday, and raised £6,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mrs Chorley, 52, came up with the sweet theme because Toni’s last words, before she slipped into a coma, were: “I love you lots and lots, like Jellytots.”

She said: “It was a party to remember her by and all of the proceeds are going to Macmillan because they were there helping me on the evening.

“I was over the moon with the amount raised and everyone in the room got a prize. All I have done all year is sit in my garage making up prizes in baskets for it.

“I would like to thank everyone for their kind donations and support along the way.”

Mrs Chorley, who also has a son, Karl, 32, is holding a Jellytots-themed coffee morning for charity at her ladies’ boutique, which is called TLC, using Toni’s initials, on Durham Road in Blackhill on Friday, October 30, from 10am-4pm.

She supports several charities with coffee mornings and fashion shows, is donating £1,000 to the Anthony Nolan Trust and has already given £3,200 to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Toni, a former Prudhoe High School pupil was first diagnosed with cancer in 2006, six weeks after heading to London having graduated with a degree in theatre studies.

She had dreamt of becoming a model, had been signed up to the Zeebra agency in Sunderland and been likened to the 60s icon Twiggy.

Instead of pursuing her dreams she moved back home to begin her lengthy battle with the illness, which included aggressive sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Mrs Chorley said: “I will always raise money because my last words to her were ‘I will not let you be forgotten’ and I won’t, because she was my baby.”