{"id":280446,"date":"2025-07-21T17:07:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280446\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T17:07:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T17:07:26","slug":"pride-of-britain-winner-tony-hudgells-mum-reveals-shes-battling-stage-four-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280446\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride of Britain winner Tony Hudgell’s mum reveals she’s battling stage four cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paula Hudgell, who won national praise for her tireless campaigning on child abuse laws, revealed that her cancer has returned and spread – nearly two years after she was first diagnosed<\/p>\n

17:29, 21 Jul 2025Updated 17:36, 21 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

\"Five-year-oldPaula Hudgell has revealed she is battling stage four cancer(Image: Adam Gerrard \/ Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n

The devoted mum who gave Tony Hudgell<\/a> a second chance at life has shared the devastating news that she\u2019s now fighting stage four lung cancer<\/a> after her cancer returned and spread.<\/p>\n

Paula Hudgell, who won national praise for her tireless campaigning on child abuse<\/a> laws, revealed that her cancer has not only returned but has spread – nearly two years after she was first diagnosed. The 57-year-old former nurse adopted Tony in 2016 after he was left with life-changing injuries by his birth parents. The abuse little Tony suffered was so severe<\/a> that both of the youngster\u2019s legs had to be amputated.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Boy who was so badly abused he had legs amputated dubbed ‘hero’ for charity work<\/a>\"PaulaPaula Hudgell is battling stage 4 lung cancer(Image: Ken McKay\/ITV\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Paula, who was honoured with an OBE in 2022 for her fight to bring about Tony\u2019s Law, was diagnosed with bowel cancer that same year. But in a moving social media post on Saturday, she told followers the disease has now progressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really tough few weeks,\u201d she wrote in an emotional Instagram<\/a> message. \u201cIn 2022, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer – and after feeling the best I have in years, I\u2019ve now been hit with the heartbreaking news that it\u2019s returned, and this time it\u2019s also in my lung. Stage 4. It\u2019s been a huge shock, and it\u2019s taken some time for us to get our heads around it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharing a photo of the marking left on her chest from the portacath used to deliver treatment, she added: \u201cIn ten days, I\u2019ll start aggressive chemo. We don\u2019t know exactly what the future holds, but I\u2019m ready to give this the biggest fight of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TonyTony lost both his legs after suffering horrific abuse by his birth parents(Image: Chelsea FC via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Paula lives in Kent with her husband Mark and their children, including Tony, now 10. The couple adopted him after he survived unimaginable abuse as a baby – suffering fractures, sepsis<\/a>, organ failure, and ultimately losing both legs.<\/p>\n

But despite his brutal start in life, Tony has defied all odds. He has walked on prosthetics, raised over \u00a31.8 million for charity, and become a national hero – winning a Pride of Britain award and receiving heartfelt praise from the Prince and Princess of Wales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paula\u2019s relentless campaigning alongside MPs and child protection charities led to the introduction of Tony\u2019s Law in 2022, increasing the maximum jail terms for those who cause or allow serious harm or death to a child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paula Hudgell, who won national praise for her tireless campaigning on child abuse laws, revealed that her cancer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[17568,452,748,1204,393,4884,2936,1144,72932,1412,519,712,105555,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-280446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-adoption","11":"tag-bowel-cancer","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-cancer","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-lung-cancer","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-pride-of-britain-awards","19":"tag-princess-diana","20":"tag-royal-family","21":"tag-scotland","22":"tag-tony-hudgell","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114892324570771078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}