THE family of a mother-of-five who died in Paris have made a desperate plea for help to bring her body back to Bolton for her funeral.

Claudine Tshiela, from Tonge Moor, died aged 41 after suffering from lymphoma cancer with family at her bedside, including her husband Mingiedi Tshife.

Mrs Tshiela decided to travel to Paris for a second opinion after her condition was not diagnosed by the NHS. Her family clubbed funds together for her treatment and travel.

She first started having pains in January last year, but it was not until August that year when she was diagnosed while in Paris. Mrs Tshiela, whose youngest child is four-years-old, spent much of this year in Paris receiving treatment, occasionally coming back to visit family in Bolton, and then died late last month.

The pain that the condition was causing forced her to close her business, Saris, a fashion shop in Bank Street, and the situation has left the family short of finances.

Mrs Tshiela had no life insurance to cover the cost of bringing her body back home to Bolton. Her family hope that people will donate to help in their time of need and have asked for a total of £7,000, with the cost of flying her body home being about £3,000, and a funeral expected to cost at least another £3,000.

The campaign has already raised more than £1,500.

Mrs Tshiela is originally from Congo, and originally moved to the UK in 2001 before re-locating to Bolton three years later.

In 2013 she graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in fashion design, and then established her business, which was open for about 10 months.

Daniel Sukula, Mrs Tshiela's nephew, set up the fundraising campaign. The 26-year-old said: "It would be really helpful if the community supported us because this has all been unexpected and quite sudden, her family have not had enough finances to deal with the situation.

"It has just been so terrible, before she went to France I spoke to her and she had been in a lot of pain.

"I felt that we had to do something, because her kids are still young, and it is totally wrong for a family to be left without a mother so young. We want to give her a proper funeral."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We can confirm the death of a British national in France on July 22.

“We have provided the family with assistance in dealing with a bereavement abroad.”

To donate, visit gofundme.com/inmemoryofclaudine