A GUTSY woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32 will be cheering on Race for Life runners as they make their way around the course.

Emma Pitcher is still waiting for the all-clear from the illness but will volunteer at the May 31 event to support hundreds of runners and walkers giving their all for cancer patients like herself.

Emma, of Dorchester, who is now 35, was diagnosed with the disease in February 2007.

“I was very young to be diagnosed with breast cancer – it came as such a surprise to me,” she said.

The Dorset County Council worker underwent chemotherapy and lost her hair, but donned a headscarf and returned to work by October 2007.

She ran in last year’s race at Kingston Maurward College with a large group of family and friends and raised £600 for Cancer Research UK.

“People always ask how you get through it, but you just kind of have to because it’s happening to you.

“I had to make the best of it. Sometimes you can get wrapped up in your own feelings.

“I wanted to be thinking about normal life. Breast cancer doesn’t just affect one person, it affects your friends and family too. You want to keep giving something back because it gives you such a unique perspective and that is something I never want to lose,” she said.

After finishing her course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Emma is now on hormone treatment and is doing well.

She said: “One positive thing about cancer is that you find out what you are made of and what your friends are made of.

Support from her partner Toby McConnell, her friends, family and colleagues kept Emma going through her illness, she said.

“Everyone was really upset to begin with and the first few weeks I felt like I was having to help them through it.

“Some people who I didn’t know so well would avoid me but I didn’t blame them because it’s not an easy thing to deal with.”

n If you are running on May 31 and would like to share your reasons for doing so with the Echo, call Joanna Davis on 01305 756032.