A MUM-OF-TWO who may have just a few weeks to live has planted a tree for her boys and husband to remember her by.
Dominique Hill was joined by more than 80 friends and family to plant the weeping willow by the Letcombe Brook near the family home in Grove on Friday.
Among them were her husband Darren and their boys Callum, five, and Toby, seven.
Mrs Hill, 44, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in March last year and given two-to-five years to live.
In November, however, she was diagnosed with a rare complication of cancer called leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, in which the disease spreads to the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
This time she was told she had roughly three months to live, or until February.
Mrs Hill said she had been carrying on making plans on the 'bucket list' she drew up last year, including a long-delayed honeymoon with her husband of eight years to Prague on February 19.
Speaking on Monday she said: "It's only five days into February, but that's the month I've been told it's all going to happen, it's like it's real.
"But, if I fight through February and March, I've got things planned in April.
"There is also some tidying up of last loose ends, then I can relax."
Since writing her bucket list, Mrs Hill has been relentlessly ticking things off: having a belated 40th birthday party, a spa weekend with friends, dying her hair pink and braiding it (before it fell out because of chemotherapy), going on a proper holiday with Mr Hill and the boys, creating a 'love lock' gate at the Betjeman Millennium Park in Wantage and flying in a plane.
That last one was arranged by friends Jo and Marcus Garman, and in November Mr and Mrs Hill and the boys took off in a tiny plane from Oxford Airport and soared over Oxfordshire, even spotting the boys' school, Millbrook in Grove, from the air.
A trip to the Forest of Dean gave the family a chance to get away from everything together and relax in nature.
Almost all of their adventures have been made possible thanks to tireless fundraising by family and friends, who have jumped out of planes, gone on sponsored runs, shaved their heads and organised charity bingo nights.
Mrs Hill said that help from Sobell House hospice in Oxford and regular steroids had given her a new strength in recent months.
A few of the items on the original bucket list, such as going on The X Factor, running around the Withdean Stadium in Brighton near where she grew up and Disneyland haven't been possible.
But Friday's tree planting had an extra special significance for the family.
Mrs Hill explained: "When I was growing up we had a massive willow tree in our garden and I have memories of playing in this tree with our dad.
"He died when I was five – the same age as Callum is now, so I wanted to put something in the ground that would grow and my boys could see every day on their way to school."
The tree, as with everything on the bucket list, was made possible with help from friends, but also Grove Parish Council.
Mrs Hill, a former army dental nurse at Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, is also hoping that a bench can be put near to the tree so her boys and others can sit there and think.
But she added: "I did partly chose the tree because the branches are low enough for it to be a climbing tree.
"Both the boys climb on absolutely everything: they are very spirited, but it keeps me alive."
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