FOR many people, being told you’ve got cancer can feel like a death sentence. But mother-of-three Collette Wells is proof that there is life after a diagnosis.

The 43-year-old has lived with the disease for nearly 10 years, undergoing mastectomies for two different bouts of breast cancer, chemotherapy for tumours in her shoulders, chest and lungs and an operation to remove her ovaries.

Collette must have regular scans to monitor the disease and has contracted and beaten infections.

She has arthritis in her knees and has survived an anaphalactic shock reaction to one of her many drug treatments.

Yet Collette, looks on the bright side of life with a smile on her face at her family’s home in Burnley Road, Accrington, crediting her family and friends with her will to survive.

“The doctor says my positive attitude keeps me going, but I put it down to my family and friends,” she said.

“There are people who get ill and don’t have that support so I’m really blessed.”

Her fight for life has seen Collette complete a wish list compiled ‘for a laugh’ after her first diagnosis in 2001.

Her focus was to build lasting memories for sons Ricky, 23, Perry, 22, and James, 12, and husband Martin, 42, with family holidays to Lapland and Disneyland, a shopping trip to New York, and a romantic break to Hawaii — where the couple renewed their wedding vows.

Collette said: “I have done a lifetime’s-worth in these 10 years.

"You just think, if your time’s up you want your family to have good memories.”

While studying for a degree in social studies at Accrington and Rossendale College, Collette found out she was ‘extremely dyslexic and not just thick’ having struggled throughout school.

She completed the course despite the cancer returning at the end of her second year, and was then ready to go back to work when breast cancer struck for a second time.

She said: “When I got my second breast cancer diagnosis it was a completely different kind, which is rare but it does happen. Since then, I’ve never gone back to work.

“I used to have goals all the time: ‘If I make it to . . .’ First it was my eldest’s 21st, then James going to secondary school.

“Now I give myself little things to strive for to get me through.

“I went for a scan last Wednesday and will go back on Thursday for the results — and will probably be put back on chemotherapy.

"So I’ll probably be on it through Christmas, which is my aim now — it’s my favourite time of year.

“But I’m still here and if I’m sick and still here then it’s worth it.”

Collette says she is touched by her sons’ attitudes towards her illness — classed as terminal when it spread to her lungs last year — especially James, who has grown up knowing nothing else.

“James is a Catholic. His faith means so much to him. He thinks we’re all here waiting to go to God and he really keeps us all going. And he never complains.

“I’m very proud of them all. It’s that what gets me through the blues.

"They make me laugh and have kept me really positive and they don’t let me get down.

“You think it’s a cliche to have support from your family and friends, but I really have and it makes all the difference.

“So far, the cancer hasn’t spread in my lungs but the tumours probably will grow again — we just don’t know.

"As my doctor said, it could be another 10 years — treatment is evolving all the time.

“I have a wheelchair and sticks but don’t like using them, and I am in pain every day. But what’s that when I’m here?

“When I first found out I was poorly people were upset for me.

"I was working with severely disabled children and I wasn’t upset.

"I still have a better quality of life than some of them — it made me feel even more blessed with my children.

“It seems silly but I feel really lucky. I might not have lasted this long, so I feel I’m the luckiest person in the world.”

Collette is guest of honour

ON October 1, Collette and two of her friends will be guests of honour at a glittering black tie awards ceremony at Ewood Park, Blackburn, celebrating the best of amateur theatre in East Lancashire.

Event organiser Kevin Rawcliffe heard her talking on Radio Lancashire during the summer and decided to donate proceeds from the events raffle to Collette and her family, which last year saw £800 given to the British Heart Foundation.

“It’s fabulous, I can’t wait for the night,” she said.

“I could speak to a thousand people, no worries, but my friend’s feeling sick with nerves for me already. But it’s the thought of wearing a dress that scares me!”

l To donate items for the raffle email anna.mansell@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk