Aberdeen Mother's Heartbreak as Mum Dies from Rare Cancer Before Meeting Grandchild
Seona Wells, a 34-year-old woman from Aberdeen, has spoken openly about the profound and complex grief she experiences daily. The joy of welcoming her daughter Mara into the world in June 2025 is forever intertwined with the deep sorrow of losing her own mother, Christina, to a rare and aggressive cancer just months before.
'It Just Feels So Cruel'
"It just feels so cruel: could she not have lived long enough to have met my daughter, become a grandmother herself?" Seona told PA Real Life, her voice heavy with emotion. "She'd always wanted that. She was one of these women that just loved children. She was actually a neonatal nurse herself, so she'd had this career of looking after babies. It just feels really cruel that she didn't get to be a grandmother and look after her own grandchild."
Christina, aged 58, received a devastating diagnosis of a rare sarcoma in March 2024. The family was quickly informed the cancer was untreatable. Christina spent her final months receiving palliative care at home, passing away in November 2024. Seona was just eight weeks pregnant at the time.
A Bittersweet Journey
The timeline of events created a landscape of conflicting emotions. When Christina was diagnosed, Seona and her now-husband Scott were planning a wedding for summer 2025. They brought the ceremony forward to July 2024 to ensure Christina could attend. Soon after, they began trying for a baby.
"I didn't know how much time she was going to have or if she would ever get the chance to know that I would be a mum, let alone meet her grandchild," Seona explained. "I couldn't really imagine becoming a mother without her."
Fortunately, Seona conceived in time to share the news with her mother just three weeks before Christina's death. "That was a very hard time," she recalled, "because I was going through the first trimester, with sickness and things, and then I was also trying to nurse my mum with my family."
Even in her final days, heavily medicated, Christina's joy was palpable. "When she was on quite a lot of pain medication, near the end, she was still kind of booping my tummy if I was standing next to her," Seona shared. "She literally would smile and say aloud 'I know what's in there' when she booped my tummy."
Finding Solace in Shared Experience
Following her mother's death, Seona leaned on a strong support network:
- Her two younger brothers and father
- Her husband, Scott
- Close friends
- Her mother's circle of female friends, who became like aunties
"I feel like I've got all these aunties that are looking out for me, and that's just because of who my mum was," Seona said. "She had these people that loved her so much that they are still looking out for me. That kind of feels like that's still her looking out for me, in a way."
Seona also sought connection with others who understood her unique pain. She discovered The Motherless Mothers, a UK charity supporting women raising children without their own mothers.
"Having that peer support has been immensely valuable," she emphasized. "It's just full of women looking after each other. You'll say something – if something's been a bit triggering, or you've had a bad day – and there's just instantly a bunch of women who know exactly how you feel."
The community offers:
- WhatsApp groups for constant connection
- Free one-to-one counselling with BACP-qualified counsellors
- Various resources and free drop-in sessions
A Legacy of Strength
Seona now reflects on a poignant family parallel. Her mother, Christina, was herself a motherless mother. Christina's mother died of cancer at age 60 when Christina was 33.
"I think about that so much now – my mum was going through the same thing, just with older children," Seona reflected. "I remember having such a great childhood and such a loving mother, and I understand now, I think, exactly what she must have been going through. She managed to do it, she was strong, she managed to show up and be this incredible mother to us."
While every milestone with baby Mara is tinged with sadness, Seona strives to "let the joy in" and remember "it's OK to be happy." Her ultimate goal is to honour her mother's legacy.
"One of the ways of trying to honour my mum is just to try and be as good a mum to my daughter as she was to me," Seona stated, her resolve clear. The journey remains bittersweet, but through community and memory, she finds a path forward, carrying both the weight of loss and the light of new motherhood.
