A FUND has been set up to fly a ‘beautiful’ woman who was ‘always smiling’ home to her final resting place.

Family, friends and colleagues of Maria Gulyas, 37, said they have been left ‘shocked and devastated’ at her sudden death from cancer.

She sadly passed away on Tuesday (Aug 2) after a ‘short but brave battle’ with the disease. Maria had been on maternity leave after having her daughter Dora nine months ago. Friends said she was due to return to work the week she went to hospital. Originally it was thought she had a chest infection but friends said it quickly became clear she had cancer. Maria and her family only had three weeks between the diagnosis and when she sadly passed away.

Originally from Serbia, Maria and her partner Tamas, lived and worked in Weymouth. They both worked at Weymouth Care Home on Glendinning Avenue.

Friends and colleagues at Weymouth Care Home paid tribute to the young mum who was ‘a beautiful person both inside and out.’

Maria’s friends and colleagues said that it was such a ‘sudden and unexpected tragedy’ for which her family had no time to prepare, and it was a financial struggle to fly Maria’s parents to the UK to be with her in her last hours.

They set up a Go Fund Me page to help to pay for a cremation for Maria and to fly her home to Serbia, accompanied by her parents, partner and tiny daughter, where she can be laid to rest. Any additional money raised will be put into a trust fund for Dora.

Yesterday the page had already raised £3,060, smashing the fundraising target of £3,000 in just more than 18 hours.

One of the group, Laura Nash, worked with Maria for more than two-and-a-half years, she said: “She was just the nicest woman, always smiling. She was really lovely.”

She said Maria was ‘really happy’ to be a mum to little Dora and said that everyone had visited her on maternity leave and Maria had even brought little Dora into the care home so that she could meet everyone, adding that: “Everyone had a cuddle with Dora.”

Laura said that Maria and Tamas just wanted to build their life together in Weymouth.

Laura said: “We are really shocked and devastated. She was the nicest woman. Tamas works with us, they are absolutely lovely people. It’s just heartbreaking.

“We just want to support Tamas and Dora as much as we can.”

The team at the care home said the response to the fundraising page has been ‘amazing.’

Laura added: “The response has been incredible. We only created the page on Tuesday night. Everyone’s been amazing. We cannot thank them enough.”

To donate to Maria’s fund visit gofundme.com/2hdw2wr8