The Miracle Of A Daughter’s Devotion

Mother-of-two Laura Binder seemed destined to succumb to cancer as the cancer spread from her breast to her liver and that there was nothing the doctors could do. Her situation seemed hopeless.

But one person steadfastly refused to give up: Mrs Binder’s nine-year-old daughter Linzi.

Linzi wrote her mother a letter every day for the next seven months urging her not to give up the fight.

One read: ‘You are like the centre of a rose and you smell just like a beautiful red one. You can fight cancer. You can fight it. I love you!’

And spurred by her daughter’s letters, Mrs Binder really fought the cancer. In a miraculous turn of events, her body is now completely free of cancer.

The single mother, 32, who lives in Norwich with Linzi and her younger daughter Alicia, who turns three next week, said: ‘It really is remarkable. I was so scared that I was going to die and leave my daughters without a mother.

‘The doctors told me in February that my cancer had spread to the liver and they could try to control it but they couldn’t cure it.

‘But Linzi refused to give up on me and wrote me these wonderful letters every day ever since. She was determined that I wasn’t going to die and I was going to get better. And her wonderful letters have helped a miracle happen.’

Mrs Binder, a care assistant for people with learning difficulties, went to her doctor in January this year when her breast felt unusually hard. The doctor gave her antibiotics but she went back three times after it failed to get better.

She was then referred to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where a mammogram and a biopsy revealed the devastating news that she had breast cancer.

She said: ‘It was such a shock when I got the diagnosis. I never imagined it would be anything as serious as breast cancer.’

A further scan three weeks later revealed even worse news. The cancer had already spread.

Mrs Binder said: ‘I was heartbroken. I had a mastectomy operation but it had spread to my liver already.

‘The doctors told me that it couldn’t be treated, that they could just give me some chemotherapy treatment which could hopefully buy me some more time.

‘So I took lots of photos of the children and we went on lots of outings. I was just desperate to spend as much time as I had left with them.’

But while Mrs Binder was undergoing chemotherapy, her devoted daughter spent hours writing her a new letter every day to keep her spirits up.

Mrs Binder said: ‘It just brought tears to my eyes when I read Linzi’s letters. I would look forward to getting them each day – it really brightened everything up for me. To read such devotion was so inspiring. I was exhausted from the chemotherapy and I lost all my hair. But her letters gave me the strength to fight on.’

Mrs Binder then went for a scan at the end of September, expecting to hear that the cancer had spread even further. But to the amazement of both her and her doctors, the scan revealed no trace of any tumours.

She said: ‘I just couldn’t speak, I was in complete shock. To be told that there was nothing that could be done for me, and then finding out the cancer has completely gone was just incredible.

‘The doctor just said to me that I was a miracle. And that’s what it seemed like. I couldn’t stop crying with relief.’

She credits Linzi for helping her beat the disease.

She said: ‘I went to pick her up from school the day I got my scan results and I told her the cancer had all gone. She just burst into tears and kept hugging me. She couldn’t believe it either.

‘I couldn’t have done it without her. Her letters kept me going. The doctors can’t explain why my cancer disappeared, but I can. Those letters gave me a reason to keep fighting.’

And there was time for one last letter, which read simply: ‘Congratulations! All your cancer is gone. I love u!’

A spokesman for Cancer Research UK said: ‘Occasionally it can happen that cancer goes completely into remission like this when it is thought there is no hope.

‘The love from a daughter is a strong powerful thing. Positive thinking provides an incentive to get better. It’s amazing how things like this can happen and there is no explanation for it.’