A BELTON mum-of-two is backing a national cancer charity's fundraising campaign as she fights her own battle against the illness.Samantha Douglas, 37, has already had one breast removed after finding a lump, and now she faces losing the other breast.

A BELTON mum-of-two is backing a national cancer charity's fundraising campaign as she fights her own battle against the illness.

Samantha Douglas, 37, has already had one breast removed after finding a lump, and now she faces losing the other breast.

Samantha, of Waveney Drive, will be joining fundraisers across the country when she hosts one of Macmillan Cancer's World's Biggest Coffee Mornings today.

The mum of two small daughters is all too aware of the importance of the charity's work.

Swimming teacher Samantha lost her mother Eleanor Clark, 49, aunt Elizabeth McCulloch, 39 and grandmother Isabella McCulloch, 42 to cancer, which meant she checked herself regularly.

However, her cancer diagnosis early in August this year still came as a shock - the discovery of a lump the size of a pea in her left breast being made during a family holiday in America with husband Daryl and children a month earlier.

Subsequent tests have found a second lump on her right breast and she is expecting to have this removed after she finished her course of chemotherapy next year.

Samantha said: “I am very good at always checking myself, but I had not been to the hospital for a check up in two years so I thought I would check myself and I found a lump the size of a pea, so I thought I am not going to worry about it as I am on holiday. Then my husband checked it and I decided to get it checked when I got back to the UK.”

The biopsy at the James Paget University Hospital found the two lumps and she was told to return to the hospital three days later to find out the results.

She revealed: “I thought one lump might be a cyst, but when they said I had a second lump I knew then it was probably cancer. When they told me I broke down in tears, but pulled myself together and said right, okay, I will deal with this and I went home and since then I have got up every day and thought no, it is not going to beat me.”

She said her experience showed the importance of checking yourself regularly and of having supportive friends and family.

A swimming teacher at Great Yarmouth's Marina Centre and Bradwell's Phoenix Pool, Samantha said: “I have had a lot of support from friends and family. My friends have been unbelievable. The children have sent me flowers and get well cards.”

Samantha's coffee morning is at Monkey Business in Harfreys Road, Great Yarmouth, today at 10am.