AN INCREDIBLY brave mum has tragically died just weeks after refusing vital treatment to have her miracle baby boy 15 weeks prematurely.Lorraine Allard, 33, is pictured here holding her treasured tiny tot Liam for the first time.

AN INCREDIBLY brave mum has tragically died just weeks after refusing vital treatment to have her miracle baby boy 15 weeks prematurely.

Lorraine Allard, 33, is pictured here holding her treasured tiny tot Liam for the first time.

But the mother-of-four's courageous smile hides terrible heartache because she knew she was dying and had just months to live after being struck down by deadly cancer.

Heroic Lorraine was determined to keep her baby when she was offered a termination at 23 weeks and even delayed her own make-or-break treatment to give the baby a better chance of living.

She told her devastated husband Martyn: "If I am going to die, my baby is going to live."

Lorraine hugged and cuddled little Liam when he was just days old after being born almost four months early as he lay in a hospital cot with tubes attached to his tiny body.

But it was the proud mum life that hung in the balance and having held her longed-for baby boy just a handful of times she lost her heartbreaking fight for life last Friday (Jan 18).

Lorraine, of St Olaves, near Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, died knowing she would not survive to bring up Liam or help choose wedding dresses for her three beloved young daughters.

But her strength, courage and humour in the face of terminal cancer diagnosed in the fourth month of pregnancy has astounded her family.

She died just months after the brutal bombshell diagnosis, devastating her parents Tom and Muriel Berry, husband Martyn and daughters Leah, 10, Amy, eight, and Courtney aged 20 months.

Baby Liam is putting on weight and doing well in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after being born on November 18.

Dozens of friends and family will say a final emotional goodbye to Lorraine at her funeral on February 4 in the same Hopton church where she married Martyn, her partner since she was 16, and in September where Courtney was christened.

Her father Tom led tributes to busy, bubbly Lorraine saying she lived life to the full and was always thinking of others.

Tom said: "I was overwhelmed by the way she took it. Lorraine has always been a superb girl and a grafter who did not want to rely on anybody.

"She lived for her husband and her children. She was a big personality with a heart of gold."

Lorraine's husband Martyn, 34, an oil field technician with Prior Diesel, said she had hoped to hang on long enough to bring Liam home in March and would ring the hospital every day to check on his progress.

He said Lorraine was uncomfortable throughout the pregnancy and doctors suspected she had gallstones.

But scans showed she had two secondary tumours on her liver, one of them 13cms in diameter.

Although the primary cancer was never found it had probably been growing undiagnosed in her bowel for years.

Treatment was palliative with no hope of a recovery.

One of her main problems was water retention with 10 pints having to be drained from her stomach before chemotherapy could start.

A scan a few days before she died revealed treatment had been having little effect.

The former Oriel High School pupil recently moved to St Olaves from Hopton to a beautiful riverside home the family shared with her parents.

Lorraine loved horses, karate, cars, decorating and sewing - even knitting scarves for the nurses that were caring for her.

Mr Allard said he was grateful to his employers for paid leave to care for Lorraine and to colleagues who collected £1,500 towards a last Christmas together.

Her mother Muriel Berry, said Lorraine could not have been "more loved" and she was heartbroken for her four children growing up without their mum.

She also leaves siblings Thomas, Joanne and Steven.