The emotional strain of the awful news and draining physical toll of chemotherapy would have been the perfect excuse to step aside but Lisa isn't one to let things beat her.

She continued with the event and it raised over £14,000 for the Northern Ireland branch of Cancer Research UK.

With her chemo behind her, Lisa feels she now has more reason than ever to continue to work to make Ballymena's Relay for Life a big annual event in the borough's calendar.

This year's Relay will take place on May 23 and Lisa is appealing to local people to get involved by registering teams.

She said: "The event is 24 hours and for teams of between 8 and 15. You raise the money before the event any way you want, pub quizzes, cake sales etc etc as technically it isn't a sponsored event.

"The team captain needs to register on the cancer research uk website as a team captain via the link http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/relay/venues/ballymena/

"Once the team captain has registered he/she will receive a fund raising pack and t-shirt through the post, there is a £15 admin fee to register (basically to cover the t-shirt and postage). You will also get a team page and link which you can then e-mail to all your friends inviting them to be team members. They just click the link, pay the fee and then they get sent their fundraising pack and t-shirt in the post. The pack contains fundraising tips and a calendar.

"The relay comes from the fact that someone from the team has to be on the track at all times, walking, running, crawling etc. We will give you a timetable which breaks the 24 hours down to 30min stints. The more in the team, the less you have to walk. There are team activities during the 24 hours and your team is encouraged to compete in all of them there is a trophy for the best team and best fund raisers."

IF you would like any more information - or would like Lisa to give a talk to your group or organisation about Relay for Life, just give her a ring on 07818298456.