BRAVE Bethany Shuttleworth's dream of a miracle cure in the sun hangs in the balance.

The little, dark-haired charmer (pictured) suffers from acute eczema.

And anxious mum Angela has, through four years of exotic creams and lotions, been desperately searching for a legitimate treatment.

She believes she may have finally found the answer in mysterious hot mud springs high in the mountains above Marbella on Spain's Costa Del Sol.

But, after months of planning, the trip may have to be cancelled.

Angela has lost her job. Income is nil. "I'm desperate. It's looking bleak," she said.

"I dare not tell Bethany we may not be able to go. I am just hoping that somehow it will all come right."

Angela, a former cash bingo supervisor at Shipley's, had - with the help of her father - arranged a one-week visit to Spain after learning of the cure in a magazine article.

"It seemed the answer to all our prayers," she said.

Bethany, who is four, has suffered from eczema all her short life. From birth she has been unceasingly swathed in layers of bandage, daubed in an assortment of ointments and creams.

But nothing has worked.

"She now has regular visits from a specialist nurse," said Angela, who lives in a neat terraced house in Bedford. "At times she is a lot better, then comes a big flare-up.

"I just pray we can still go to Spain and that the treatment is a success."

But lack of funds has left the trip in jeopardy. She needs to pay around £300 by the first week of August, then she needs money for regular train journeys to the mud springs.

"I spend every day at the Job Centre. But nothing happens. It's a nightmare. I just feel everything is on my shoulders at the moment and I am crumbling under the weight.

"It's a losing battle but Bethany still believes we are going.

"I just feel I am banging my head against a brick wall. It's just so hard and I have nowhere to turn."

Angela's trip, taking her sister Kay plus her five-year-old daughter Tamsyn, is planned for early September.

Meanwhile, she is taking her former employers to industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal.

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