A WOMAN has thanked her mother's workmates for giving her the chance to have revolutionary treatment in South America.

Debi Cuthbert, 36, yesterday met Stockton Borough Council workers who helped raise £2,064 to send her to Mexico for the treatment.

Ms Cuthbert, who has a five-year-old daughter, Lauren, has raised a total of £20,000 to undergo the treatment for Hodgkins disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system.

She has already been to Mexico but must return.

Money was raised by council staff who work with her mother at Wynyard House, in Billingham, Teesside.

They organised raffles, donated money instead of sending Christmas cards and exchanged their normal work clothes in a council-wide Dress Down for Debi Day.

Ms Cuthbert recently returned from the Oasis of Hope Hospital, formerly the Contreras Clinic, in Mexico.

Catherine Peacock, development officer at Stockton council, helped organise the appeal events.

She said: "I would like to send out a big thank, on behalf of Debi to all employees of Stockton Council, who really got behind this appeal and showed their support.

"This money will go a long way towards providing her with the help she needs."