A BOURNEMOUTH woman battling cancer that cannot be cured is pledging to be on the start line at Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life – and she is urging Dorset residents to join her and sign up now.

Gail Haywood thought her fight against cancer was firmly behind her, having successfully undergone a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy after discovering the dimpling on her breast in 2011.

But despite enjoying six years of good health after recovering from her ordeal, the step-mum-of-two was devastated when chronic pains in her side – which she believed were gallstones - turned out to be cancer in her liver.

The news shattered Gail and her family – yet she’s facing up to the disease with a gritty determination to “get on with it” while doing all she can to raise awareness and funds for vital research.

And she’s got her own personal army of supporters willing her on in the form of mum, Anne, sister Becky and stepdaughter Jemma who are signing up to Race for Life in her honour.

Gail, 47, a former gunner in the Royal Artillery who lives in Bournemouth with partner Ian, said: “It was a real shock to find out the cancer was back – it came completely out of the blue. I was feeling well and hadn’t had any symptoms at all. They told me they can treat it but they cannot get rid of it.”

Gail underwent a gruelling course of 18 chemotherapy sessions, causing her to lose her hair once again. But the results showed how the main tumour in her liver had shrunk by 25 per cent.

Now she is taking part in a clinical trial at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London called Compleement – a phase III trial which involves combining two drugs to see if it is a safe and effective treatment for women with advanced HER2 negative breast cancer.

Gail said: “I just know I have to crack on and deal with it. It’s not me I feel sorry for, it is my family.

“I don’t really think about my own mortality. I think about those people who have to watch it happen to me who feel helpless about it.”

Bournemouth 5k and 10k Race for Life events are due to take place on June 10 with events in Poole planned for June 16 and 17.

Throughout January Bournemouth women are being offered 30 per cent off entry fees for Race for Life events and you can register by visiting raceforlife.org