A Stockton family is facing fresh heartache as a young mum battles stage three cancer. Melanie Bayliss, 30, lost her first partner, Bryce Jones, to Hodgkin Lymphoma the age of just 27, when she was heavily pregnant with their second child, Caelum, in May 2020.
The pair were already parents to Logen, now 11. The Stockton mum, who was recently offered an apprenticeship with a travel agency, went on to find happiness with partner, Tom Baker, 32, and the couple welcomed now two-year-old Melody.
However, devastation has hit the family again after Melanie was diagnosed with stage three cancer in her womb. The tumour has wrapped around a kidney and Melanie is undergoing aggressive chemotherapy at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in a bid to shrink it so surgeons can hopefully operate to remove it.
Close friend, Jason Rossiter, has launched a fundraising page in a bid to help ease the financial burden as Melanie fights for her life. Jason said: “In early December 2025 Mel was told that cancer cells had appeared in her blood and she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of womb cancer at the end of December 2025 after initially being told by her GP that it was adenomyosis.”
He said by the middle of January this year she was told that it had already progressed and is now at late stage three with Melanie having a 30% chance of survival.
Melanie’s children Logen, Caelum and Melody(Image: UGC)
Melanie and her partner Tom(Image: UGC)
Jason said: “A few days ago, Mel received the news that her cancer is not currently operable due to the tumour wrapping itself around one of her kidneys and has started affecting other organs, so she is currently undergoing aggressive chemotherapy at a hospital in Newcastle, with the hope that it will shrink the tumour back down to an operable size.”
The 37-year-old said the news has hit everyone hard. He said: “The two boys have already lost their dad to an aggressive cancer back in 2020 without the youngest ever meeting his dad and now they have the devastating news that their mother is battling cancer as well.”
Logen and Caelum lost their dad, Bryce Jones, to cancer in 2020(Image: UGC)
Jason said he launched the fundraiser to help support Tom and the children with costs of Melanie being in hospital and then when she is discharged to recover at home they can build some precious memories as a family in case things take a turn for the worse.
He said: “This has been a pretty short, but very emotional and stressful road for them all and we are hoping and praying for the best possible outcome for Mel so that her children don’t have to go through the heartache of losing a second parent to this awful disease.”
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