The family of a popular Weymouth woman said they lived their "worst nightmare" as she was hospitalised with an aneurysm while visiting her son in Australia.

Julie Croley, 54, had been in Western Australia for a month visiting her son Dan when she suffered what was thought to be a stroke the day before she was due to fly home.

Doctors found an aneurysm on her brain which was described as potentially life threatening, and Julie's husband and Dan's father Mike rushed out to Australia to join them.

Dan launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his dad amid fears that he could suffer financially while being away.

On the page, Dan wrote: "My dad has flown over from the UK to be with us, he’s a self employed bricklayer and isn’t earning a thing while he’s with us.

"I've never asked anyone for money in my life, but I’m living my worse nightmare right now."

Speaking to the Echo, Dan said: "Early one morning mum woke me up in tears, not making any sense and half her face had dropped. I knew these were stroke-like symptoms and I drove her to the nearest hospital.

"She had scans and they decided she needed to be flown to Perth and potentially operated on immediately as they found an aneurysm on her brain. Once she got to Perth the doctors decided rather than operating, they would control her blood pressure using medicine.

"Mum had been stable for a couple of days, and then one night she had a seizure. They took her for more scans and saw that she had a bleed on the brain, but in a completely different area. After this she wasn’t really reacting much to us."

Julie was taken into intensive care in Perth's Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, after which Dan said he and his father were "absolutely broken."

He added: "Dad was stressed about mum and worried about work. I thought about all the amazing fundraising events mum had organised over the years and how many people would want to help her out.

"I let her friends know what had happened and was instantly messaged by hundreds of people saying amazing things about her. It’s made me so proud of mum. She’s an absolutely amazing human being."

To the shock of hospital staff and Julie's family, she woke up after a nurse pinched her toe during a routine check and began talking.

Dan said: "She held her arms up and told me to hug her, I was a sobbing mess by this point and we all just couldn't believe what was happening.

"After the bleed in her brain the neurosurgeon was shocked to see her so alert. They’re still controlling her blood pressure but she seems to be fighting this like an absolute beast."

Julie is now in recovery and could be in hospital for up to three months. She is a well known figure within the local community having dedicated much of her time to helping others, and she has received waves of support from hundreds of donators with the GoFundMe page raising over $4000 in less than a week.

You can still donate to Julie and her family at gofundme.com/my-mum-has-a-brain-aneurism