GILLY Pantlin was the picture of health.

A nutritionist in Wimborne by profession, she was a typically active family woman – fit and successful – it never crossed her mind something might be terribly wrong.

Even one morning in April 2011 when she found a hard and uneven lump sticking out of the bottom of her breast, her first thought was not of cancer.

Denial is a powerful force. It meant Gilly put off going to the doctor for weeks and thoughts of anything serious were placed far away. Cancer simply did not happen to people like her, she thought.

“I am a nutritionist so I had a healthy lifestyle – I didn’t really see myself as a candidate,” she recalls.

“I thought perhaps it was a cyst; although there was just a little niggle at the back of my mind.”

In the end that niggle pestered Gilly sufficiently to take her to the GP and have the lump checked.

“I will never forget the moment I was given the news,” she says. “I thought they must have got my notes mixed up. The stress was unbelievable.”

Gilly had oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer – a common and treatable form of the disease.

However, medics told her it was unstable and she endured a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, before having reconstructive surgery.

Each stage was exhausting. But she fought at every moment, using research and knowledge as her tools.

She was told she would almost certainly lose her hair because of the treatment. She did not – something she credits with the use of cold caps.

“Women will walk away from chemotherapy because they are so scared of losing their hair,” she says.

“It is not just losing your hair; it is losing your femininity.”

As well as promoting the use of cold caps, Gilly is also keen to talk about how nutrition and understanding chemical pathways can be used as a weapon.

“You can get good oestrogen and ones that turn against you,” says Gilly. “What I want to do is empower women and enhance their knowledge about their metabolism.”

This has resulted in Gilly, currently clear of cancer, to plan the ‘pink helpline’ – a free service for women wanting her specialist advice.

In the meantime she is urging sufferers in need of advice to contact her by email on gilly@benchmarkhealth.co.uk