TEENAGER Eden Brown has been told she has terminal cancer after originally being told a pain in her leg was 'growing pains'.

Eden, 15, plans to return to school, sit her GCSEs and go to her prom despite being told that she has months to live.

She was told on Thursday, March 3, that her condition was terminal and was back studying trigonometry in the hospital the very next day.

Mum Tess Lewis, from Oakdale, Blackwood, said: "She wants to sit her GCSEs because doing her GCSEs means more than anything to her at the moment.

"She wants to go to prom because Jewels and Gems just outside us have given her a prom dress and they're going to have it all fitted for her so she can go.

"She even wants to go to college.

"I think when I was that age, it would be like 'yeah, I don't have to go to school anymore' but for her school is life, it's important."

Eden was first diagnosed with cancer in 2020 after originally being told that the pain in her leg was 'just growing pains'.

After tests confirmed she had osteosarcoma, which is a rare form of bone cancer, she underwent a variety of treatments.

Despite undergoing surgery on her leg and chemotherapy, the cancer has spread to her lungs and a growth on her foot is continuing to grow.

Her chemotherapy has been stopped as nothing more can be done, except from an oral chemo drug that will hopefully prolong her life and make her more comfortable.

Ms Lewis said: "It's hard because her baby sister was born six days after she started chemo, so her sister's now 21 months and her brother is five next month.

"How do you tell four year old that the big sister he worships is one day going to go away and not come home again? 

"He knows something's up, we've told him that she's going to get very, very poorly and very sick.

"That's as far as we can really go because it just breaks my heart thinking I've got to tell him she's gonna die."

Ms Lewis says she has been trying to keep things together for the sake of Eden's siblings, but she is struggling to cope with the news.

"I still haven't come to terms fully with that she's gonna die," said Ms Lewis.

"I sit there and I look at her and other than her hair loss from the chemo and the limp from the surgery she had back October before last she looks like a normal teenager.

"But she's not, she's dying."

Eden's brother, Logan, and her sister, Faora, have given her the strength to keep fighting.

Ms Lewis said: "She wants to try to spend as much time as she can with them.

"Her brother Logan is going to have some memories of her, but her little sister's not going to have anything really.

"It's just going to be patches, so we're trying to make sure that we can do lots of little things and take lots of photos.

"If itasn't for a sister, I don't think she would have fought as hard.

"She feels connected to her sister, they both had the same due date and she was born just after she started chemotherapy.

"So Eden would say she's fighting for her."

Eden had issues with self-hatred before her diagnosis but now regrets that time in her life.

"She will do anything to know she's going to go to college and she is going to do everything.," said Ms Lewis.

"She's going to be the zookeeper she dreams of - but she knows she's not

"Now she just wants to be an inspiration for others to fight."

Eden's family have set up a GoFundMe page "to make what time Eden has left as comfortable as possible" and  "to see her smile as much as possible".

At the time of writing the page has raised £3,450 - £2,450 more than the original target of £1,000.

You can donate to the page here.