A FAMILY want to raise £1million in honour of a “humbling, courageous and truly amazing” mother who died of a brain tumour.

Susan Blasotta, of Winchmore Hill, died just six weeks after being diagnosed with cancer in January 2011.

The 42-year-old, a committed member of St Monica’s Church in Palmers Green, left behind children, Sasha, now 19 and Daniel, 17, and husband, Joe.

Her family – including father David Taylor and siblings, Kathleen, Angela and Nicola, now hope to raise money as part of charity ‘In Sue’s Name’ to keep her legacy alive.

Recounting the moment he discovered his daughter was sick, Mr Taylor said: “Sue rang me and said a few days before, someone had handed her a cup of tea which she had inexplicably not been able to grasp.

“She told us that the doctors had found ‘lesions on the brain’. I knew straight away they were talking about ‘brain tumours’ and was understandably shocked and heart-broken.”

A devoted Christian, Mr Taylor, now 75, asked everyone he knew to request a Mass be said in Church for Susan.

In the end, around 200 were said around the world in places as far as Australia and Africa.

Sue’s two best friends also started planning to take Sue to Lourdes in the South of France where countless miracle cures have been documented.

Doctors discovered she grade 4 glioblastoma multiformem, the most aggressive and incurable type of brain tumour, she was given just six months to a year to live.

Chemotherapy was delayed because the oncologist was ill, and when Sue had a fit a few days later, she was put into an induced coma over Christmas.

She was able to enjoy a midnight toast with her family over Christmas and asked her sister, Niki, to look after her children after she was gone.

But she died on January 8, 2011 – just six weeks after her diagnosis and two days before her father’s birthday.

Mr Taylor added: “Tragically, she didn’t have the opportunity either to write some special words to treasure for her beloved children Sasha and Daniel.

“Sadly, they only got to see her once when she was in a coma, on the day before she died, when they spent time combing her hair and cuddling her.

“Sue was also too ill for the trip to Lourdes in search of a miracle to take place.”

Before her death, Sue, who adored her job at St Ignatius College in Enfield, had run five Race for Life events and raised money for Cancer Research UK with a skydive.

Paying tribute to his daughter, he added: “Her family was very important to her – she was a loving daughter, wife and mother to her two children; a rock upon which a family was built. Sue was a shining light, a beacon, in fact.

"Her personality, warmth, beauty and love were on display for all to see.

“It was humbling how Sue faced death with such courage – she was truly amazing.

“Her most worrying thought was how her family would cope when she had gone – she said – “I have got the easy job, I am going to die – you have got the hard job, carrying on without me.”

After learning other people from their parish had also died of brain tumours, Mr Taylor was determined to do something and launched the charity in 2014.

The £1million campaign will be launched on February 2.

Her family want to raise the money by 2027 to provide crucial research to support the Brain Tumour Research Centre of Excellence at Queen Mary University of London.

Although the disease kills more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

He added: “Research into brain tumours is woefully underfunded and treatments for this devastating disease have barely moved on for decades.”

The charity has some famous faces involved, including Steve Coogan, Don McLean and the Archbishop of Liverpool who are their patrons.

A Greek night in her honour will be held on March 10 at The Penridge Suite, Enfield.