The Shade Primary School community in Soham, near Newmarket, rallies to help Burwell mum-of-three Stacey Mani diagnosed with terminal cancer

A community has rallied round to support a mother-of-three who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Stacey Mani, who is 38, and her partner, Anthony Webb, live in Burwell with her 12-year-old son and nine-year-old twin boys, who are pupils at The Shade Primary School in Soham.

A delayed diagnosis due to Covid-19 meant that although Stacey has been receiving treatment at Addenbrooke’s Hospital for Stage 4 cancer, the disease has now become incurable.

One of the The Shade school’s teaching assistants, Sharon Wright, said: “As soon as we heard about Stacey, everyone at the school wanted to do something to help the family.

“She is an amazing woman, very straight-talking and down-to-earth, which has made it easy for us to support her and the boys.

“Obviously we can’t change the outcome but we can do something to help their journey.”

Sharon set up a gofundme page with the aim of paying for Anthony to have driving lessons and get through his test.

“Anthony has driven with a learner-plate but he needs to have some proper lessons so he can take his test,” she said.

“At the moment he can’t drive the children to school or take Stacey for her ongoing treatment. If he could drive it would be one less thing for her to worry about in the future which is very uncertain.”

Donations to gofundme have shot up to £2,290, well in excess of the £1,500 needed for driving lessons, which Anthony has started this week with local instructor Gary Farrer, who has already got a date set for him to take his test.

It meant that the extra money could be put towards a very special event which Stacey and her family could look forward to her wedding to Anthony which is provisionally set for early in the summer.

Another boost to the fund-raising campaign came with a coffee and cake morning with Body Shop products on sale, as well as hairbraiding and a raffle with prizes donated by by local firms and individuals.

It was held at the school and £2,226 was raised in only four hours.

“I can’t tell you how many people came to help,” said Sharon.

“It wasn’t just the staff, but their mothers, daughters, husbands, and friends as well.

“Everyone was so generous and so pleased to feel they were doing something to help”.

For anyone who would like to donate, the gofundme page set up by Sharon can be found at https://gofund.me/5341dc20