A GRIEVING father spoke yesterday of his pride for his 15-year-old daughter, who battled with cancer shortly after giving birth to twins.

Suzanne Watson gave birth 12 weeks prematurely in July, but 11 days later her second-born son, Robert, died.

Then doctors diagnosed lung cancer in the teenage mother, which her family was told was extremely unusual in such a young person. It spread rapidly, leaving her 34-year-old father to bring up her surviving son, Connor.

Mr Watson said: ''The pregnancy was something she had to live with and at the finish she ended up dying, but I don't think she would have had it any differently."

Suzanne, of Wilton Avenue, Walker, Newcastle, was cremated last week, with her baby son in the same coffin.

Mr Watson and his wife, Vicky, who is Suzanne's stepmother, will now bring up Connor.

The grandfather said: "We will never forget her and Connor will keep the memories of Suzanne open.

''We have hundreds of photos that we have taken over the past few months, and as he gets older he needs to know who his mum was.''

Doctors at first diagnosed the back pain Suzanne was suffering during pregnancy as a symptom of being so small while carrying twins, her father said.

It was only after she had given birth that lung cancer was diagnosed. She was treated with chemotherapy at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary Children's Cancer Unit.

Before her death, she managed to hold Connor while receiving treatment, and for five nights he slept next to his mother after he was released from the intensive care unit at the hospital.