On April 9, 2003, Linda Scofield was told the devastating news that she had advanced breast cancer and it had spread through the rest of her body. It had broken one of the strongest bones in her body and her consultant thought she had weeks or months to live.
Faced with the bleak diagnosis, she thought she would never get to see her young children grow up and even made plans for her 12-year-old daughter's future wedding.
Almost exactly 20 years on, Linda is preparing to watch her daughter walk down the aisle thanks to the wonders of medical science and a new drug that had come on the market at the time.
Linda, who was 42 at the time admits that she was "terrified" when she got the diagnosis that day. "I just went into another world," she told BBC Breakfast. "It was such a shock. I had two small children at the time and I didn't think I would live 48 hours."
Husband Gary described it as "desperate" times but through the darkness the couple were given hope in the form of a new 'wonder drug' Herceptin. Linda was eligible to be one of the first to receive it, but they had no idea if it would work.
Convinced she wouldn't be there to see her daughter get married in the future, Linda bought an engagement card, a horseshoe and a book entitled 'For The Bride'.
That drug did work and she is able to give those presents to her daughter herself.
"I just never dreamt that I would get to see her get married," says Linda. "It was a long way off and she was only very young, but she got engaged last year and the day before the 20th anniversary of the diagnosis I will be there to see her get married. I will be there to witness it.
"These are all milestones I never thought I would get to see. I don't intend on going anywhere yet. I still have a lot to do.
"The way that research and medicine has come on is incredible. There is hope and light at the end of the tunnel."
Husband Gary says: "It is an incredibly positive story of hope. We don't get to talk about cancer in a positive way much but this is a really good example of how it can be positive. I couldn't be more proud of her."
Simon Vincent from Breast Cancer Now said that the drug Linda was given 20 years ago was one of the first drugs "designed" to work on a particular weakness in cancer cells.
"One of the things that has changed over the past 20 years is that we are asking a lot of questions about what sort of cancer it is and what has gone wrong in the cells and more and more we are seeing drugs that really target those cells that have gone wrong," he said. "We hope because some of those drugs target cells the side effects will be less."
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