The parents of two small girls have both been diagnosed with cancer, with a friend of the family calling it “unimaginable”.

A Givealittle page set up for the Christchurch family of four said they have faced “incredibly tough times over the past two years”.

Father of two Nigel Joyce was diagnosed with a brain tumour and shortly afterwards his wife Marjan was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer.

“It has been an unimaginably challenging period for them,” the page’s creator Angela Hawkins said.

Nigel and Marjan Joyce’s daughters are aged eight and four.

“In a devastating turn of events, Nigel had a health crisis on ANZAC Day and is now in end-of-life care with approximately two weeks to live,” Hawkins wrote.

“After just finishing radiation treatment and being told her breast cancer had gone, tragically, Marjan began experiencing vision loss and seizures three weeks ago, which has now been diagnosed that the cancer had spread through her brain,” she said.

“Their family is beyond devastated and is doing their best to support each other and maintain some semblance of normalcy for their two young girls during this unimaginable situation,” Hawkins said.

The Givealittle page has been set up to support the girls and the family as they navigate this heart-wrenching time.

“As parents, this situation strikes a deep chord, and as we look at the faces of our loved ones, we can only begin to imagine the pain they are enduring,” she wrote.

The money will be spent on support costs for the family as they work through funeral arrangements, needing to take time to support the girls long term, and new family arrangements to be made.

The Givealittle page can be found here.