A North East mother and father have taken out more than £10,000 to reach their grandchildren after their daughter died in a car crash in Australia last month.

Hannah Fraser, 30, mother-of-six, died after a head-on crash with a cement truck in Perth, Australia on Wednesday, 26 October.

The incident also saw all of her children taken to hospital, where one, 5, has been left in critical condition, and another, 11, has been left paralysed.

Since then, her father, Stephen Fox, 55 and stepmother, Christina Fox, 50, from Stockton-on-Tees have rushed to secure flights back to attend their daughter's funeral and be there for their family.

Read more: Stockton family's appeal after Hannah Fraser dies in Australia crash

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The parents, who are originally from Australia, launched an emergency fundraiser in October and have today hit their £15,000 target.

Before the GoFundMe reached its goal, Ms Fox told The Northern Echo the family could no longer wait and had used credit cards to pay for their flights to Australia next week - at a cost of £18,000.

Speaking on their grief and decision, Ms Fox said: "It's been pretty fraught to be honest, and we need to get to Australia.

"In this situation what do you do, we're fortunate we've raised what we have and extremely grateful for [the] generous donations that we've had.

"They're struggling, and family members in Australia are struggling, and we just feel like we need to be there.

"We've kept frightening ourselves, every time we've looked at air fares they were going because it's getting closer to Christmas.

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"Hopefully, that's given [the family] a little bit of comfort in this terrible situation that at least we're going to make it out there.

"We're not going for a holiday, we're going because our daughter has died."

Ms Fox said one of her grandchildren is still in a coma and the family are trying to remain optimistic, but won't be certain of her prognosis until she wakes up.

In an update online, she said one of the children has suffered a severed spine and is now paralysed, while their other injuries remain unknown.

Meanwhile, she said it's been difficult to get more information as her friends and family in Australia have been inundated with calls and messages, while noting the time difference makes this even harder.

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The Northern Echo: Christina and Stephen Fox speaking on Perth's Channel 9 NewsChristina and Stephen Fox speaking on Perth's Channel 9 News (Image: Facebook)

Adding to this, Christina said she had been in London to visit her critically-ill father who is currently in hospice care before they depart.

She said this, along with a last-minute scramble involving passports which had expired in April for two of her children, has only added to the family's stress.

Speaking on her stepdaughter's husband, Leighton, she said: "He's an incredibly strong man, I can tell that from the way he's been.

"It's a huge change to the childrens' lives and his life, Hannah was the love of his life.

"[Hannah] touched the lives of so many people, she's going to be extremely missed."

Ms Fox also condemned trolls who had left her and her family "horrible comments", especially at such a sensitive time.

She said without the money raised from the GoFundMe, her, her husband and their six children would not have been able to attend Hannah's funeral, and she is very grateful for the donations.

You can donate here.

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