MOTHERS brought together as their sons were treated for cancer are pulling together to fight the disease.

Lynn Robinson first met Melanie Shorey five years ago through Lynn’s business Cakes For All Occasions, baking cakes for the children’s birthdays.

But the pair lost touch and never realised they were both going through the same heartache as Melanie’s four-year-old son Nathan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in May 2010 and Lynn’s son Carl, 14, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in May the following year.

Both had been on the children’s cancer ward in Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary at the same time but their paths had never crossed.

“It was so strange how it happened,” said 40-year-old Lynn, of Blyth in Northumberland.

“She must have seen something on Facebook and got in touch to see if everything was OK. I explained what was wrong with Carl and she said she was up in the hospital as well with Nathan because he had leukaemia.

“Since we found out she has gone through pictures of Nathan on the ward and I am in the background of one. It is the strangest thing,” said Lynn, who lives with husband Michael, Carl and their daughter Kayleigh.

Melanie, 34, said: “I hadn’t spoke to Lynn since Nathan was diagnosed.

“Then I saw she had put some pictures on Facebook of her son and saying thanks to the staff on Ward 4 and I started looking into it because I wondered if her son had cancer like Nathan.”

Melanie emailed Lynn and the friends were reunited. Carl has now finished treatment and is in remission but Nathan will continue his course of chemotherapy until July next year.

Now the mothers are uniting to organise a charity ball to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and the North of England Children’s Cancer Research fund.

Mother-of-four Melanie said: “We were talking about my son and her son’s treatment and she said she had organised a ball last year and asked if I would like to do it this year and I agreed to help her.”

Melanie and Nathan, who has just started in the reception class at Ellington County School, are still back and forth to the hospital but the family are determined to raise awareness for children’s cancers.

“I think people just think it’s rare but when you have a child who has it you are thrown into this new world,” said Melanie, who lives in Ellington, Northumberland, with husband Michael and their children.

“We would like to raise awareness through a petition for childhood cancer, the more awareness you get the more you can raise to look into it,” she said.

The ball, called Newcastle’s Golden Charity Ball after the colour which represents childhood cancers, will be held on November 17, at the Holiday Inn in Seaton Burn.

Tickets cost £30 each and include a meal and entertainment. For information on buying tickets email mlrobi@talktalk.net