Cuddled up with her daughter, husband and cat Betty as they counted down the days to Christmas , Bryony Thomas tried hard to raise a smile for the camera. Her little girl Eleni, then just eight, was fizzing with excitement about Santa’s imminent arrival – while Bryony and husband Tom were trying to come to terms with the news that the devoted mum had pancreatic cancer. “Looking back at that picture now, it feels pretty surreal,” says Bryony, of Stroud in Gloucestershire. “You can see the