A B.C. mother succumbed to cancer Wednesday, just days after doctors helped grant her dying wish.

Breanne Smaaslet, 22, got to hold her little boy, Salvatore, after Vancouver-area doctors performed an early caesarean section on Christmas Day.

Smaaslet was just over 26 weeks pregnant when Salvatore was born.

He weighed less than a kilogram, but his aunt said the “miracle baby” was doing well and that his mother had been able to hold him.

Smaaslet was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of 18, and she had not been expecting to get married or have a child.

Then Adam Smaaslet came into her life, and she became pregnant in the summer.

The two married in September. Adam died months later. The cause of his death was not clear.

Smaaslet had hoped to stay alive until the baby could be born, telling CTV Vancouver days before the operation that she had “always wanted to be a mom.”

With files from CTV Vancouver