BRAVE mother Lorain Hodson died in the arms of her husband after battling a rare form of cancer for seven years.

Mrs Hodson, 39, died peacefully at her home in Bluebell Drive, Chepstow yesterday.

Roger, her husband and full-time carer, said his wife had been in a coma for two days before she "slipped away" while he was cuddling her. Mr Hodson said today: "She struggled with breath through the night but she passed peacefully.

"We had known it was going to happen and Lorain had been at home in a coma on morphine for two days so we'd all had time to say our goodbyes.

"She actually opened her eyes and gave me a beautiful smile the day before and I told her it was okay, that she should stop fighting. She's been through so much.

"Then yesterday morning I put my arm around her and kissed her and I felt her drift off."

Since Mrs Hodson found a cancerous lump the size of her thumbnail on the back of her right heel in 1997, she endured two amputations, the first below the knee and the second above it, and several painful treatments. But since then she learned to live with her illness which forced her into a wheelchair for the last four years of her life.

Mrs Hodson chose to try out every possible treatment offered to her no matter how painful.

She was desperate to buy as much time as possible with her husband and children, teenagers Chris and Amy.

She told the Argus last January: "I try to be a very loving mum, I'm no longer interested in seeing the bad in the world, I may not grow old."