Gayle McElhinney had recently set a goal to see her 36th birthday next week but tragically passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The 35-year-old was told by doctors nearly two months ago she only had weeks to live, making Gayle determined to spend her final moments with the people she loved most.

The mum’s determination and spirits remained high despite the fact she had been battling a rare genetic disorder, Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS), for a number of years.

She had delayed a life-saving double mastectomy after her second bout of breast cancer because she didn’t want to be unwell recovering while son Kane was undergoing treatment for liver cancer.

Sadly, her youngest boy lost his battle for survival two years ago in July 2013. He was only 12.

Now her heartbroken family — husband Robert, 42, and eldest son Daniel, 17 — have been hit by tragedy for the second time in only two years.

Robert, of Piper Avenue in Houston, was at her hospice bedside when she passed and said: “We’re all completely devastated, but Gayle is at peace now.

“She’s not suffering any more. She’s leaving an enormous hole in all of our lives.” Gayle had hoped to reach the milestone of her 36th birthday on October 14, but the disease, which had spread to her breastbone, shoulder, lung, hips, spine and ribs took her too soon.

Yet, despite being on strong drugs to try and numb the terrible pain she suffered before her death, she had still been campaigning from her bedside.

Last month Gayle spurred hundreds of people to add a special gold ribbon to their Facebook profile picture for Child Cancer Awareness Month.

The Gazette documented Gayle’s journey as she bravely put her own cancer treatment on hold and delayed a life-saving double mastectomy to concentrate on youngest son Kane, who carried the same gene, resulting in an aggressive form of liver cancer, in 2012.

When the St Margaret’s Primary pupil passed away in July 2013, his loving mother Gayle and father Robert McElhinney remained at his bedside.

Gayle finally had the surgery that doctors had recommended after her second bout of breast cancer but it was too late to rid her body of the devastating disease.

Even from her bed in St Vincent’s Hospice in Howwood, she was accepting of her fate and was defiant about raising as much awareness of childhood cancer as possible.

Just before she passed, she said: “I’m ready to go. Kane and I will be together again, side by side, forever.”