A COURGAEOUS cancer survivor has told her extraordinary in the hope it can inspire others to carry on the fight against adversity as she gave a talk at a conference designed to celebrate 'strong women'.

Barbara Moss of Worcester who has been in remission for six years gave the talk about her cancer battle at Abbey Hotel in Malvern as part of the Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce Women's Business Forum.

The 59-year-old of Aconbury Close, Worcester was joined by Sophie Carrigill GB's wheelchair basketball captain. Both were described by a representative of St Richard's Hospice as 'very strong women that after great adversity have gone on to do great things and make a real difference'.

Mrs Moss gave a talk about her battle to an audience of 80 people on Friday and profits from the raffle went to St Richard's Hospice where she was a day patient.

The mother-of-two said: "I am an ordinary person, and like all other people, did not expect to get cancer. One day, I had been happily working as a teacher for 25 years, the next, I was in hospital and given three to five months to live and told that I had terminal cancer of the colon that had spread to the liver. It was as sudden as that. It was utterly devastating. My husband nearly fell off his chair. He sobbed in my arms."

As previously reported the tumour was reduced by the drug Avastin until it became operable though, at the time, she had to pay for the treatment herself.

She said: "I now had a target, I had to reduce my tumour. The strength that this hope gave me, I am certain, reinforced by the love of my family, attributed tremendously to why I am standing here today, the rest attributable to the excellence of my clinicians and to modern medicine."

She has since worked to secure a better deal for cancer patients on the world stage, working with her local patient organisation, Bowel Cancer UK, an associate member of Europacolon, she applied to the authorities to fund her treatment, having to pay £21,000 to fund her own treatment which cost her all entitlement to NHS care as she had paid for a drug privately.

The drug worked dramatically and after only four months she was in hospital and ascending colon and entire left liver were removed in one operation.

She works as a Patient Ambassador for Bowel Cancer UK and also for Europacolon. Mrs Moss is also on the steering committee for the SPECTAcolor project, a major European research project for treating colorectal cancer.