Carly Jones, 25, from Saltney, Cheshire, died last July (2007) after a brave battle against cervical cancer. She had been struck down with the disease as she fought to get her children back from Germany.

Carly had gone to Germany to be with her partner Jamie and their son Sol. While in Germany she fell pregnant with their second child but she suffered from depression and she was sent back to the UK in 2004 for treatment to get well and her son Sol placed in the care of her partner’s mother and Reece with a foster family.

Carly, in her depressed state had signed a voluntary custody order not realising what it was and had now been told she may have signed away her rights as a mother. By this time Carly was no longer in a relationship with her partner and hoped that once she was well enough she would bring the children back to the UK. But to her horror she was told that she could no longer have the children – then began a battle to get them home.

Carly got Legal Aid at the end of 2004 to fight the case and got a solicitor. Carly was still able to visit Sol and Reece. Sol was in the care of James’ mother and Reece had been fostered out – neither of the children were with their father and he by now had got married.

Carly was devastated and made trips to Germany to see the boys but then in late 2005 tragedy struck when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
She underwent chemotherapy and bravely fought it and continued her fight for her sons.  In April 2006 she began to feel much better and her family believed she was beating the cancer after a scan showed her tumour had disappeared as a result of the treatment. A month later Carly was well enough to travel and she went out to Germany to see the children – she was overjoyed to see them and they were so pleased to see her.

During this time the legal process was still going on but nothing seemed to be happening fast. So Carly made the decision to move to Germany so she was close to the children and help push things along and finally bring them home. The cancer had made her more determined than ever to be with them.

But in February 2007 she began to feel unwell and after a hospital visit was told the devastating news that the cancer had spread to her lungs and that it was terminal.

Carly didn’t want to know how long she had got but I was told it would be at the most a year. She told me she still wanted to carry on fighting for the boys despite the news. The legal case was dragging on so we decided to sack the solicitor as he didn’t seem to be doing anything fast, we then found out that he didn’t even specialise in children’s law and we just felt cheated at every twist and turn.

Carly had to go through chemotherapy again and she wasn’t able to go to Germany to see the boys. She was worried that she was running out of time and so we enlisted the help of another solicitor to get the boys over for a visit before it was too late for Carly. As usual the wheels of justice moved slowly and as time went on Carly lost more weight and got worse.

Carly also wrote a heartfelt letter about her plight one line read: “I am a mother who runs after her children though we are worlds apart and I will keep on running after them until the day I die.”

She fought to get her boys back to the UK for a visit before she died but as time went on it looked increasingly unlikely that she would see them again. She celebrated her 25th birthday surrounded by family and friends just weeks before she died.

For a 25-year-old facing death she showed immense courage in accepting her fate with grace. She never gave up the hope of kissing her boys one last time but it wasn’t to be.

A judge in a German court ordered that the two boys be sent to the UK for a visit in July 2007 but the German social services defied the order and they incurred a 10,000 Euro fine, Carly was devastated by this news and her fight to live was lost, she died at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, Backford, Chester, two days after being given the news with the photographs of the boys around her. She had the pictures of the boys placed in her coffin so she could at last be close to them.

Her mother Jean has continued to fight on and is hoping to get both boys back to the UK to live with her. She has the backing of Glenys Kinnock MEP and has just appointed a new legal team in Germany to take on her case.