The son of an “inspiring” retired teacher, who has been given just five months to live, is making a desperate plea to raise money for her to access alternative treatment.

Christine Lone, 70, who worked at Balfour Infants School in Rochester for more than 25 years, has been diagnosed with secondary stage 4 liver cancer.

After three months of intense chemotherapy, she was discharged from the Royal Marsden, a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London in December after being told “there was nothing more that could be done”.

But her son Rob has since obtained her medical records and researched other types of medication as well as possible surgery which he hopes might give his 70-year-old mum a little longer.

The unemployed computer programmer has launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise a maximum of £30,000 to pay for second opinions, more tests and scans. If you would like to donate, click here.

The cash might also go towards treatment unavailable on the NHS and travel expenses abroad.

Rob, 40, told KentOnline: “The situation is dire. But all the time there may be options, we have to go for it. We can’t give up.

“I would have been prepared to be a liver donor, but we have been told that would not be possible.”

Christine, who worked at the primary school from the 1980s to around 2010, was told she had a primary tumour, a rare sarcoma cancer, in her uterus in May 2022 after complaining of bleeding.

After undergoing an operation, further tests revealed the disease had spread to the liver and lungs.

A scan showed she had about half a dozen large tumours, the size of boiled eggs, on the right side of her liver while the left side has remained intact.

After a course of chemo at the specialist cancer hospital the family were told it had not worked and, even worse, it had spread.

The family feared the worst when she was hospitalised for sepsis and a low white blood cell count in November 2023.

She was sent back to her home in Grosvenor Avenue, Rochester, to be with her husband of 50 years Khalid, 73, for Christmas.

While Rob, who now lives in London, has started raising funds here, his sister Rebecca, 43 who has moved to New Zealand, is saving to return to the UK so Christine can see her two young grandsons, perhaps for the last time.

He said: “We are not a rich family but I don’t want my mother to turn down treatment just because of costs.”

Specialists at the Royal Marsden, who gave her a seven-month life expectancy last December, said she is likely to succumb to liver failure.

On her fundraising page, one well-wisher posted: “I worked with Christine for a few years. She was an inspiring teacher and shred her love of drama with the children.

While another thanked Christine for everything she’d done for her son, adding “you've been a mother to him and I'm praying for you and sending much love”.