When mother-of-two Amanda Woodhouse was told she had a life-threatening brain tumour, her world fell apart.
The night before the operation to remove it, she spent hours sending text messages to family and friends telling them she loved them, just in case she didn’t pull through.
Mrs Woodhouse did pull through and although her future is still uncertain, she has embarked on a charity fundraising mission.
It will culminate in her being the VIP starter of the 2011 Tesco and Cancer Research UK Race for Life, in Brighton.
And she’ll be joined at the starting post by her very own running team, a 20-strong group of family and friends, calling themselves Amanda’s Angels.
Race for Life is Britain’s largest women-only fundraising event series where women join together to walk, jog or run 5k raise money to help beat cancer.
Mrs Woodhouse, 40, of Baden Road, Brighton, is married to Mick and has two sons, Jack, 14 and Max, ten.
She had a grade 4 brain tumour diagnosed in 2009.
Incurable
Despite her own incurable condition she has ploughed her energies into trying to help others fight the disease.
“When doctors told me I had the worst type of tumour I was completely shell shocked,” Mrs Woodhouse said.
“The night before my operation to remove it, I sent 1,000 texts to family and friends telling them I loved them, just in case I didn’t pull through.
“When I came round the next day I was so relieved that I was alive, and also not to be brain damaged, I started to think all this might have happened for a reason.
“Now I believe it is so that I fundraise as much as I can so that others might benefit from better treatment in the future even though it might be too late for me.”
Mrs Woodhouse is currently undergoing her second bout of chemotherapy treatment after already undergoing a year of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in 2009
But she kicked 2011 off by raising more than £2,000 for Cancer Research UK after organising a charity New Year’s Eve party.
This was on top of £1,200 raised from a Halloween bash, the previous year.
