A NEWPORT family has been left devastated after losing their father to cancer and receiving the news that their six-month-old son has the illness in the space of one month.

On March 20, the Hill family were shaken after the sudden death of 72-year-old father Peter Hill - a father to five and grandfather to 19.

His oldest daughter Debra said her father seemed to be his normal self before she noticed a change in his complexion.

The following day she took him to the Royal Gwent Hospital and received the news her father was dying from lung cancer. He died just three days later.

South Wales Argus:

(Natasha Hill with father Peter Hill)

"He went almost yellow-skinned and said he didn't feel too well, and within days he was gone," Debra said. "It was all so quick, there hasn't been a chance to come to terms with what's happened to us."

Due to social distancing guidelines, only five people were allowed to attend Peter's funeral, with son Andrew choosing to sit it out so his siblings could attend.

"To be so close as a family and then have to be parted like that is a terrible feeling," Debra added.

And the family's ordeal wasn't over - just two days after Mr Hill's death, his youngest daughter Natasha found a lump surrounded by bruising on her six-month-old son Myles' stomach, and took him to the Royal Gwent.

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"We were in and out within the hour, they said it was likely to be a cyst, and there didn't seem to be anything to worry about," Natasha said.

For the next two weeks Myles showed no signs of unusual behaviour, until he started throwing up his food, and the bruising became more apparent.

South Wales Argus:

"I saw a change in Myles and I knew he wasn't himself," she said. "On Monday morning (April 20) I knew I had to call an ambulance."

After spending time at the intensive care unit at the Royal Gwent, Natasha and partner Jon Stokes received the devastating news that their baby has leukaemia.

"It's a mother's worst nightmare, I feel helpless," Natasha said. "My heart feels as though it has been ripped out. We are numb.

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"We have a long road ahead of us and I can't begin to tell you how I am feeling. You never think that this could happen to you."

Natasha and Myles are now paying regular visits to the Rainbow Ward at University Hospital of Wales, and have since been told he has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and has a 54 per cent chance of survival.

Myles' family are asking anyone who is able to donate to Latch Welsh Children's Cancer Charity to do so at https://www.facebook.com/LATCHWales/.