A CANCER sufferer who believed she would never see the new millennium when her body became riddled with tumours is looking forward to the party of a lifetime after a recovery that has left doctors baffled.

Former PE teacher Brenda Simpson, 62, could not walk or eat a year ago and doctors did not believe she was strong enough to survive chemotherapy.

Brenda, of Moorend, Oswaldtwistle, had already suffered double breast cancer requiring a mastectomy and lumpectomy when she developed a painfully swollen abdomen in September 1998.

At first it was thought to be only fluid retention but, when she was admitted to Accrington Victoria Hospital, doctors realised the swelling was hiding a string of huge tumours across her stomach.

She said: "I was in such agony I couldn't stand it. I couldn't move, I couldn't even undress myself."

Doctors gave her drugs to reduce the swelling and pain and try to control the cancer but told her they could not operate on the tumours and she was not strong enough to survive chemotherapy.

Brenda said: "A Macmillan nurse came and said I could go to the East Lancashire Hospice but I said no way. I swore at her so much she couldn't get a word in to explain."

Eventually, Brenda agreed to go the hospice for day therapy, massage and reiki, an energy-channelling therapy to help her cope with the symptoms. She was allowed to go home for Christmas to be cared for by her closest friend Nell Whittaker, of Sunnyhurst, Darwen, who had known her for more than 40 years.

But she needed emergency treatment on Christmas Day and they spent New Year's Eve sitting and crying together.

Nell said: "We both thought it was the last New Year we would have, I didn't think she would even see February."

But Brenda began to make tiny advances - after a few weeks she could brush her own teeth and be helped to walk out onto her patio. She continued to improve and by summer she was well enough for a short holiday in Staffordshire. A few months later, she went with Nell on a three-week cruise.

Brenda said: "I felt myself improving day by day, even the other people on the boat could see it."

She could no longer feel the tumours and scans showed the lumps slowly seemed to disappear.

She said: "The doctor said I was an enigma. They don't really know what's happened and I don't know what might happen in the future so I'm just living a day at a time.

"It's incredible, I feel wonderful. Earlier this year, I couldn't bear to hear people talking about the Millennium because I didn't think I would see it."

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