A WOMAN with terminal cancer has revealed plans to marry her long term partner.

Archery champion Allison Kelly, of Prudhoe, has been with her beloved Alan for 27 years, but the pair have never got round to tying the knot.

The 55-year-old’s world was turned upside down earlier this month when she received devastating news that she had mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer, in her lung.

The blow came came quarter of a century after Allison overcame breast cancer when she was 29.

“I am profoundly sad,” said Allison. “I had so much more in the tank to give, both as a person and in terms of my archery.

“I was given a prognosis of six to eight months, so I want to make the most of the time I have left.

“Alan and I have been together 27 years, and we are hoping we can get married.”

Medics initially thought Allison had contracted coronavirus after she initially reported breathing-related symptoms consistent with Covid-19.

But they discovered the cancer, which had caused the left side of her left lung to collapse.

She added: “The radiotherapy treatment I received when I first had cancer in 1994 might have increased my chances of getting it again.

“I have no regrets, however. If I hadn’t had that treatment back then, I wouldn’t be here now.”

Allison recently spent 12 days on ward 52, the respiratory ward at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, before returning home.

She currently manages to get out for a walk once or twice a day. Any pain she receives from the cancer is controlled, but she suffers from a lack of energy and needs to spend more time in bed.

“The staff at the hospital were unbelievable,” she added. “They are so caring and nothing is too much trouble. They are wearing PPE, their faces are sore from wearing the shields and masks, yet they did an incredible job.”

Allison was due to attend Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital today where she will see an oncologist and find out whether she was suitable for a drug treatment which would potentially reduce the cancer and control the symptoms.

Allison revealed there was a gene fault in her family, and that she had already lost her father and two sisters to the disease, while her half sister was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. A fund-raising page was set up by Allison’s friend Janet Allen. To donate visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/janet-allen-1.