A WOMAN with terminal cancer who thought she would never shoot again has triumphed in a local archery competition and now has her sights set on the next best thing.

Champion archer Allison Wright was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a rare type of cancer in her lung – which threatened her progress in the field. It came a quarter of a century after she beat breast cancer aged just 29.

But at the NFAS shoot in Kendal, the Prudhoe woman won ladies AFB. It follows a number of county records, national titles and international representation for Great Britain in the World Championships.

“To come away and win a medal, to win a gold medal, I was thrilled”, she said. “ I was crying when I finished just because I was so happy to have got round. Normally I would have looked at that score and gone ‘that’s not very good!’

“I was absolutely astounded by what I shot because the course was really really difficult, not just the terrain but the way the targets were laid. Really technically hard.

“To get around a difficult course and then to be able to shoot that score, I was just absolutely thrilled to bits, with a bow I’m not used to shooting in competition.”

Alison now hopes to compete in the nationals in County Durham in October – the birthday weekend of her younger sister Lucy who died of cancer.

She added: “If I can just get round this national in October that would be incredible. I’ll always dream that I can get back to winning those kinds of competitions and I’ll always dream I can qualify again to shoot for GB.

“I love the sport so much. I think if you’re lucky enough to have been born with a talent for something, it just gets a hold of you, you’ve just got to keep going for it. No matter what life throws at you, you just can’t let it go.

“The sport has been so kind to me. Doesn’t matter who they are, European champions, world champions, I get these little messages and they give me such a boost.

“I wouldn’t swap it for the world, those few years. It didn’t matter if I was out shooting in the snow, the rain, the wind, didn’t matter, I just loved it. It’s that pull.”

Allison, who was given 6-8 months to live in June last year but is now on a cancer trial for a pioneering drug, took up archery aged 50.