Tributes have been paid to a loving mum who died just days after a devastating cancer diagnosis.
Jackie Baker, 60, was rushed to hospital in December when she began struggling to breathe.
She had been to the doctors six weeks earlier with chest pains, which she was told were down to muscle strain.
But after being admitted to hospital she was told she had pneumonia and was later diagnosed with terminal cancer, The Liverpool Echo reports .
Jackie passed away on December 20 with her family by her bedside at Aintree Hospital, in Liverpool.
She leaves her husband John, 66, sons Neil, 38, and James, 34, and four grandchildren.
Paying tribute to Jackie, James described his mum as a ‘loving person’.
"She was just individual and I don't think there's anyone like her in the world,” he said.
"She had two personas, she could be very funny one minute and she could be very serious the next.
"She was a loving person who would do anything for anyone but she was also dry with her humour. A lot of people didn't get her at first but then they found out how she was."
James told the Echo: "She went into hospital on 5th December. They diagnosed her with pneumonia and we kind of accepted that.
"She was in for a while and she did improve. She was on oxygen and then she took a turn for the worse.
"They drained fluid out of her lungs and they did tests on that.
"On the Friday, they diagnosed her with lung cancer and she passed away three days later, so that's how rapid it was."
James said his mum, from Norris Green , in Liverpool, had always been worried about her health after she suffered from a "mild stroke" in her early 40s.
When she was first admitted to hospital in December, James said: "I never for one second at that time thought 'my mum is really ill.'
"I knew she was poorly but I was thinking 'is my mum going to be home for Christmas?'
"My dad had got the Christmas tree up to surprise her when she got home. That was our mindset at the time, for the first week."
Following his mum's sudden death, James is hoping to raise awareness of lung cancer and the importance of getting any symptoms checked.
James will be running the Aintree half marathon on his mum's birthday, February 13, with all money raised going to the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
He said: "I think the main reason for wanting to do it is wanting to spread knowledge that you should keep an eye on yourself, especially with the covid situation, it's hard to get a doctors appointment with all the [backdated appointments] and that.
"I think that's the main reason, because three days is nothing is it? In the timeline of things, to find out you've got cancer to then die."
If you would like to donate to James' Gofundme page for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation click here.
