A family has issued a heartfelt plea for a young mum with a brain tumour to be accepted on to a clinical trial.

Mum-of-two Gemma Edgar was given a survival prognosis of just a few days.

However, she defied the medics’ fears and her family hope clinical trials could prolong her life.

Gemma, 33, was originally diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in 2014, just eight weeks after the birth of her second son, Noah.

She underwent surgery and radiotherapy but the tumour returned a year ago and she was given further surgery and chemotherapy.

However, at the end of September, Gemma was told her aggressive glioblastoma tumour had grown considerably and was inoperable.

Her family was told she was unlikely to survive the weekend. However, three weeks on, Gemma, who is mum to Dylan, six, and Noah, four, is at St Helena Hospice in Colchester.

Her father Andy Relf said: “Although she remains very poorly, Gemma quickly started to amaze the staff with her strength of mind and upbeat demeanour.

“This mental approach, linked with her medication, has resulted in daily improvements. She restarted drinking and then eating and then slowly her degree of alertness started to increase.

“Gemma is now fully alert and slowly regaining physical strength to the left side of her body which had become completely paralysed.”

Gemma, who was a paediatric nurse at Colchester General Hospital, still has big limitations, but her family are hopeful her spirit of determination may overcome these too.

Mr Relf added: “We are desperately searching to see if she might be accepted on to a clinical trial to complement the current medical care and help improve Gemma’s quality of life and possibly also prolong it.”

Gemma’s son Noah was also gravely ill in 2015 when he was found found to have entinoblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of eye cancer and needed life-saving surgery.

His right eye was removed and he underwent six months of intense chemotherapy, before spending nine weeks in the United States undergoing proton beam therapy.

Andy, along with Gemma’s mum, Barb, her brother Lee and husband Rob have raised money for Brain Tumour Research to try to find a cure for brain tumours.

Sue Farrington Smith, chief executive at Brain Tumour Research, said: “I am so terribly sad to hear of Gemma’s deterioration and inspired with how Gemma continues to fight.

“Gemma and her family should be proud of how they have helped us both to fund research into brain tumours at our dedicated centres and also to campaign for change.

“The Government and Cancer Research UK are now listening but there is still so much to do to bring parity with other cancers such as breast and leukaemia.”