A MOTHER has spoken of her determination to spend each second with her daughter Alice in a positive way, after learning the teenager’s treatment had not stopped her cancer.

Vicky Pyne said her close-knit family refused to “waste their time on misery” and were focusing on alternative healing and support for their daughter Alice, 14.

“We all remain with hope in our hearts,” she said.

“The last few years have opened my eyes. People are wasting their lives – they don’t realise everything they’ve got. But this has changed the way I live.

“I will never be the same and there is a lot I will be fighting to change in the future.”

Hopes were raised back in June that Alice could beat the Hodgkins lymphoma cancer, which affects the lymphatic system, when a male bone marrow donor in his 20s was found as a match.

But last week doctors at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool, told the Pynes that intensive chemotherapy used in a desperate attempt to beat the cancer, had not worked enough to allow a bone marrow transplant to go ahead.

Mrs Pyne, of Ulverston, said her daughter had a positive attitude that was helped by the strength of those around her.

One of Alice’s best friends, Clarissa Isaacs, 14, of Ulverston, raced to her side after the teenager texted her the news. Dozens of messages of support from across the country have also flooded into Alice’s bone marrow recruitment page.

Mrs Pyne, 42, added that Alice was her usual bouyant self – “smiley and forward focused”.

“She’s an extremely smart kid and feels very strongly that life is for living, as do I.”

Last week the teenager was given nine-week-old labrador Mabel as a present for remaining strong through her chemotherapy.

Mrs Pyne said: “Mabel’s so cute; Alice and her are already inseparable.”

The family, including Alice’s father Simon, 47, and sister Milly, 11, hope to enjoy family holiday in the UK or abroad soon.

“We always hoped for the best outcome,” said Mrs Pyne.

“Yet, I think that both of us are relieved to be able to step off the treadmill and spend some quality time together.

“Alice and I are almost one, we’ve spent such intense time together that we can finish each others sentences ... I know her inside out, and her me.

“We both giggle at the sort of people who we say ‘enjoy misery’ – what an absolute waste of life!”

Mrs Pyne said after almost three years of travelling to hospitals she felt strongly that young cancer patients’ treatment could be better, and she would work to see the region’s care improved.

The family praised more than 4,000 people who signed up to the bone marrow register after they appealed for help, earlier this year.

She added: “It’s such a wonderful thing – literally thousands of new people are on the register, because of Alice.

“If we want to find a good side to Alice’s plight, then it’s got to be the fact that somewhere, someone WILL save a life because of Alice.”