A NEWPORT mum whose desperate battle with cancer touched the hearts of Argus readers has suffered a devastating setback.

Louise Canning has developed six new brain tumours - just months after scans showed that growths in her lungs and liver had shrunk.

They were discovered after a family holiday to Florida.

Mrs Canning, 32, husband Ritchie, and children Nicole, seven, and three-year-old Paige flew out to celebrate news the cancer was shrinking.

But during the break, Mrs Canning, from Stockton Road, became unwell.

Mr Canning said: "We decided to go to Disneyland with the kids and while out there Louise started suffering from headaches."

They saw a doctor who blamed a difference in air pressure caused by the flight. But back home the couple's GP referred them to the Royal Gwent Hospital for a scan.

"It showed that Louise had six tumours on the brain," Mr Canning said. The news came as a crushing blow to the family who thought radiotherapy and alternative treatment had beaten the disease.

Mrs Canning was diagnosed with cancer just two days before Christmas in 2002. She was then given just months to live.

Following an appeal by the Argus and fundraising by family and friends, more than £35,000 was donated for Mrs Canning to have specialist treatment at the Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine in Winchester.

Last year scans showed her lungs were 80% cancer free, tumours in her liver were untraceable and the disease was under control in her blood and bones.

She will now have a gruelling course of radiotherapy and complementary treatment at the Dove clinic.

Mrs Canning is taking steroids to reduce swelling caused by the tumours but this has left her in a wheelchair because of the muscle wastage side-effect.

Mr Canning said his wife is strong, and added: "We are just coping with the help of friends and family at the moment."