A PHOTOGRAPH of her son scoring a cup final goal helped Denise Hendry through her darkest hours.

The words "Please get well soon mum" and "I love you mum," written by her son, Kyle, on his T-shirt touched the nation.

A year later and now out of her wheelchair, Denise has at last been able to repay that gesture.

She wasn't able to share in her son's soccer triumph 12 months ago because she was fighting for her life after what should have been routine surgery went terribly wrong leaving the 36-year-old with over a dozen puncture wounds in her abdomen.

Kyle had been told by his soccer star father Colin the day before his cup final that mummy might not live.

He played and scored and revealed the message of hope to the camera.

Twelve months on Denise is now fit enough to get about and when Kyle's team made it through to another cup final there were no prouder parents in the stands at Blackpool FC's Bloomfield Road ground.

For radiant Denise it was 90 minutes of football that doctors feared she would never see again.

And when Kyle laid on a goal for a colleague in the Lytham St Anne's YMCA under 12s 3-0 victory this is the touchline hug between Denise and Colin which says it all.

Many might have expected the Bolton Wanderers centre back to be at the vital Reebok Stadium relegation clash. But it was the Hogan Cup Final played in front of a few hundred where he wanted to be.

The former Scottish captain said: "This was our match of the day. I promised Denise she would see Kyle play in a final when she was so ill in hospital. At the time things were looking pretty bleak. She was in intensive care suffering from major organ failure. It was a promise I hoped against hope that could be fulfilled and now it has."

A vital brace of goals from Kyle in the semis got his side into the final for the second year running. Last year it was under 11s, this year under 12s.

Unlike his dad Kyle is a prolific striker and is also a dab hand at golf.

A YMCA official said: "He has all the makings of following in the footsteps of his dad when it comes to football. After what has happened to the Hendry's over the last year we were delighted to see them together."

The Hendrys, from Lytham, are taking legal action against the surgeon who operated on Denise at the private Broughton Park Hospital, Preston, where she went for liposuction. The day after surgery she collapsed at home and she spend months at the Royal Preston Hospital recovering from the effects of severe blood poisoning.