BABIES and toddlers are invited to a pumpkin party in aid of a Yate woman with a rare form of cancer.

Music with Mummy, a music group for small children and their parents, is hosting the pumpkin parties on Saturday, October 31, with five parties taking place between 10am-4.30pm, at Ridgewood Community Centre.

Money raised will go to the newly-established EHE Rare Cancer Charity.

Anne-marie Collier, Music with Mummy regional co-ordinator, decided to organise the event when she read in the Gazette that parent Nicola Henderson, who attends one of her weekly classes with son Owen, suffered from EHE (Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma), a rare vascular cancer.

“I had no idea,” said Anne-marie, who runs classes in Yate and Iron Acton.

“I wanted to do something to help. Quite often I run fundraising events and this is special because it is in aid of one of my mums.”

Nicola, 31, was diagnosed with the cancer which affects just 0.01 per cent of the population or just one million people worldwide by accident in May 2014.

“I had some infections after having my son Owen, who is now 17 months,” she said.

“I was in hospital on and off for eight weeks and was diagnosed with a heart condition. When they were doing an MRI scan they went a bit further down and found lesions on my liver.”

So far EHE has proved unresponsive to any chemotherapy and little is known about how to treat the strain.

Added Nicola: “I had no symptoms and I don’t now, which makes me wonder how many more people have it and don’t know.

“I am okay physically, I am just trying to get my head around it all.

“I am learning to live with the fact it is in there and the uncertainty that brings. That is what is horrid.”

The pumpkin party will include a cake sale, face painting, singing and crafts. Parents must book a slot for their child, call 01454 773267 or search Music with Mummy in Iron Acton, Yate and Chipping Sodbury on Facebook. Donations of cakes are also welcome.