Cancer survivor tells women they can fight it too

Dawn Spencer completed the Dryathlon, Cancer Research's campaign to ditch booze for a month, to celebrate being clear and was stunned to smash her initial target of £100 instead collecting £1,000 for the cause.

The 40-year-old found a lump in April 2013 and initially thought it was nothing before being spurred into visiting her GP.

She added: "I had caught it early enough for the lump to be small enough to be removed but it still needed chemotherapy and I do think sometimes if I acted sooner I might have been able to avoid that.

"I remember shaking when the doctor told me and going extremely hot, red and panicked but initially I was more worried about how I was going to pay for everything and that I couldn't afford to be off sick."

The hire desk controller at Nationwide Platforms in Appleton had six rounds of chemotherapy but it led to two five-day stays at Warrington Hospital for Dawn as she had a reaction which meant she was much more susceptible to infection and had to be isolated on the ward from others.

She added: "It was horrible and you feel like a pin cushion with the number of people sticking needles in you.

"I never got the okay after the last session or anyone telling me I was fine now.

"It was only during a check up last summer they told me I was clear that was the first time I could think 'Thank God'."

The Warrington Wolves fan is still taking tablets now and will do for the next four or five years but wants to reassure other women it is not as bad as they think.

She added: "You realise you're not invincible even though you feel like you are.

"I'm very much live for the day now and want to fill time doing something exciting, visiting people and going to the rugby as you realise you might not be able to go again if it wasn't for the treatment.

"I would say to anyone going through the same thing, it is possible to fight it and get back to normality, don't let it consume you and always look forward."