A young mother spoke of how "lucky" she felt in a final Facebook post, weeks before she died on Christmas Day.

Kirsten Hawksey, 23, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia on 27 November.

Taking to Facebook a few days later, the dental nurse from Merseyside, who had a 15-month-old daughter, wrote: "This is by all means not a cry for sympathy because that's not like me as you will be aware haha, but more so awareness.

"I never go to the doctors, so thank god for everyone pushing me to go over some unexplained bruising! I literally couldn't thank all my family, friends and work colleagues for all their support this last week.

"If anything I feel more lucky than unlucky."

Hawksey had initially gone to her doctor with unexplained bruising on her legs, the Liverpool Echo reported. But after blood tests revealed she had Leukaemia, she immediately started a course of chemotherapy.

But on Christmas Eve, she contracted a lung infection and on Christmas Day, after suffering a bleed on the brain, her family decided to switch off her life support.

Her father Neil, 39, said he wanted to pay tribute to his "strong willed" daughter as part of her wish to raise awareness of the condition.

“It was weird hearing the doctors say how ill she actually was, because she was sitting there laughing and joking with me," he told the Liverpool Echo.

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