A WOMAN whose lung cancer was cured by pioneering treatment is backing a new walk to raise cash to fight the disease.

Anona Fallows agreed to take part in a trial of a new treatment which aims to improve survival rates - just one in four patients survives more than five years after diagnosis.

The 58-year-old retired nurse from Greenfield, Saddleworth, had 33 doses of radiotherapy and four chemotherapy injections over six weeks.

She travelled to Manchester's cancer hospital, The Christie, Monday to Friday to have the treatment at the start of the year which left her exhausted but she is delighted to be cancer free.

Although she is still recovering she hopes to be well enough to take part in Cancer Research's Shine event - a midnight walking marathon through Manchester on April 17.

Organisers hope 5,000 men and women will sign up for Shine on April 17 next year and raise more than £1m. They will be able to opt for a 26 or 13-mile route.

The grandmother, a former smoker, said: "It was really frightening when they told me I had lung cancer, they caught it early but I knew it wasn't good news. When they offered me this treatment they explained exactly how tough it would be but I was determined to get through it because they said it was so much better than the existing treatments.”

Anona was on the Convert trial, a £530,000 study, funded by Cancer Research, which will see more than 500 patients undergo the radical treatment.

The trial is being led by The Christie but involves patients in more than ten countries. Standard treatment for small cell lung cancer involves chemotherapy and twice-daily radiotherapy sessions but on this trial researchers replace the two radiotherapy sessions with a single powerful dose, which they believe will be more effective.

Corinne Faivre-Finn, a consultant clinical oncologist who is running the trial, said: "The higher the dose the more likely you are to improve the localised control of the cancer.”

For more details see: http://shine.cancerresearchuk.org/home