Seeing her toddler battle for his life following a series of complications arising from his rare syndrome, there was nothing Lorinda Mamo wanted better than to cuddle and comfort her son.

Yet, there were times she could not lift him up to her and still others where she could not constantly be by his side – for while he was being treated in one end of the hospital, she was battling breast cancer in the other.

People who learn of the 38-year-old’s story hail her as “courageous”, “wonderful” and “inspiring”. Yet Ms Mamo describes herself simply as a wife and mother and is thankful that others seem to derive encouragement from her story.

Laughing at two-year-old Henry’s delight in unwrapping a chocolate egg, Ms Mamo exudes serenity despite recalling the crushing trials and tribulations life hurled at her.

She explains that Henry was born with prune belly syndrome, which is characterised by poor development of the abdominal muscles, undescended testicles and urinary tract problems, as well as chronic kidney disease.

He was my driving force – I had to wake up every morning to take care of him

Upon his birth, he was immediately whisked off to the Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (NPICU) and discharged after five days. But an hour after the family arrived home, they received a call asking them to immediately take Henry back to the NPICU.

A final blood test prior to his discharge had revealed a potassium level of 7.5. A person’s heart, Ms Mamo notes, stops at 10. Newborn Henry remained in the NPICU for six weeks.

“I used to visit him three times a day,” Ms Mamo recalls. “I felt my heart being torn out each time I left him. I was still recovering from my C-section. Every day was a shock because we always learnt something new: the doctors hadn’t managed to find the right medication, he has low haemoglobin, he’s anaemic. There was this rush of information.”

After being discharged, Henry had to be taken to hospital every two weeks for blood tests. Aged nine months, he went down with a urinary tract infection, stomach bug and pharyngitis, spending a further 11 days in hospital.

The family was also told it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for little Henry to sit up or even walk  but he has done both.

After many tests, it was concluded that one kidney had little to zero function and the other had only about 15-20 per cent function, meaning that the two-year-old would eventually need a transplant. Last year, Henry was scheduled to have two surgeries. The first surgery in February went well. In April, his doctor told the parents he was doing great and that the hospital visits could be extended to every six weeks. Two days later, the unthinkable happened – Ms Mamo found a lump in her breast and was diagnosed with stage 3 (very aggressive) breast cancer.

“Until I did the tests, we were a mess. I didn’t know how badly it had spread. I had 10 lymph nodes removed but only one was cancerous. In fact I was really lucky because I caught it early – it spreads very quickly.

“People would ask me: ‘Can we help you in some way?’ And I would say: ‘Yes, please go get yourselves checked. At that point, you wouldn’t know what the outcomes will turn out to be. So you just keep moving.”

Ms Mamo’s oncologist wanted her to receive maximum treatment, so she spent months undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. During Henry’s second operation in August, complications arose and Ms Mamo and her husband Randolph were asked to prepare Henry’s passport, so he could be taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

But he ended up being treated in Malta.

“I think they thought he wouldn’t make it. He was septic and his face was swelling up. Doctors were panicking.

“It was dangerous for me to be by his side due to my low immune system but there was no way I would be away from my child.”

In November, Henry’s non-functioning kidney filled with pus and he had to have it drained and consequently removed in December. Asked what kept her going throughout, Ms Mamo looks at her son with a smile.

“He was my driving force  I had to wake up every morning to take care of him. You have to be positive. If I was negative, I would just be digging myself into a hole. Stress, cancer and negativity are very much related.”

She cried tears of joys when she was given the all-clear recently. Ms Mamo runs a blog called ‘A Bird with a French Fry’, where she shares happy things, creative ideas and the joys of parenthood, as well as her personal story.

“I was never one not to appreciate life but now when I go out for a walk, I see things differently, I think differently and I make contact regularly with the people I love.

“I’m glad if people find some courage in my story. If at least one person comes back to me and tells me how much I’ve helped them, that’s enough for me.”