OUR blogger Melanie O'Neill, from Penketh, has two children and was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer 10 years ago.

Here she shares her latest thoughts on living with cancer.

It’s now June and I haven’t needed chemotherapy for over six months.

In between spells of tiredness you will find me making short video clips mainly about makeup, giving advice on how to make the most of what we already have or create the illusion that only makeup can, whether it be glowing skin or flushed cheeks or defined eyes.

Makeup is a saviour to those with no confidence to go without it. It can lift your spirits when you’re feeling low, make you appear well when you’re feeling like crap. It can conceal or it can accentuate features you just have to know how to and have the right tools to do it.

Over the past ten years I have lost my hair twice along with my eyelashes and eyebrows and I was fortunate enough to have the knowledge in makeup application to create eyebrows & lashes that weren’t even there.

Remembering those hairless days when I thought I resembled Lord Voldermort from the Harry Potter films and suffering from the side effects of the chemo, I would apply makeup to help me appear well and look more human.

I now want to give other ladies especially cancer patients, the knowledge that helped me get through the worst days when I could barely get off the couch. In fact I want to teach anyone willing to learn, a simple yet effective way to look more beautiful and yet still feel like themselves but more confident.

Don’t get me wrong I love my makeup free days when I’m not going anywhere therefore allowing my skin to breathe thus making a big difference when I do decide to wear makeup.

They’re my lazy days and we all need them once in a while although the “100 miles an hour Mel” seems to be creeping slowly back but I am more aware of it now so I slow down and stop as and when I need to, which I never did before.

I still have days when I wake up already exhausted before the day has begun, knowing my body is telling me to slow down so I stop and listen having a makeup free day on the couch with Netflix.

Those days are becoming more and rarer as I plough through my hand written lists of jobs I write of things I need to get through on a daily basis but knowing my health is more important I realise when I need to stop.

My heart goes out to those who are suffering from ME or side effects of medication including chemotherapy leaving you with debilitating exhaustion and fatigue.

We have to manage what life has given us and get through it the best we can and the longer we have these unkind incapacities the more we learn, the more knowledge we gain and the better we know our bodies and how to live our lives better than we did before, making adjustments where needed.

I don’t know about you but I don’t ever want to be seen as a victim rising above the challenges I have been given, dealing with every twist and turn head on with my glass half full not half empty, hoping I am an example for others facing similar challenges.

My friend Gill recently commented on one of my posts on social media declaring “Mel you’re smashing life” after I posted an excited video of me gushing after to being asked to join in on one of Laundry b’s (an online clothing company) daily live sessions on Facebook.

Life is most definitely what you make it. If you love it, do it and if you don’t then wait patiently until something you love comes along but if it doesn’t, go out there and grab it yourself.

A makeup lesson with Melanie is a donation of £30 and £10 for anyone with cancer. All proceeds will go towards her monthly treatment fund.