A PENDLE woman who has battled a hereditary form of breast cancer along with her two sisters has been told the disease is terminal.

Jackie Robinson, 58, of Barrowford, fought off breast cancer but has since been diagnosed with secondary tumours in her rib and lung, which have spread to her brain.

Jackie’s sisters, Maxine Betts, 44, and Eileen Eve, 47, have faced their own battles with cancer, as a result of carrying the BRCA gene, which increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

Maxine, who lives in Nelson, had both breasts removed and a reconstruction after finding out she had the gene, while Eileen, of Barrowford, is in remission having beaten breast cancer.

Maxine, who works at Asda, has now raised almost £4,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

She said: “Jackie is really, really poorly at the moment but I wanted to do something positive out of it.

“We have raised money for Cancer Research before, and it research that saved my life, but the Macmillan nurses do an amazing job at times like this.

“They also helped our mum so I wanted to raise money for them, the service they offer is invaluable.”

The sisters were left heartbroken when their mother, Marlene Hartley, died of breast cancer in 1994 aged 59.

A fourth sister, 54-year-old Maureen, who lives in Barrowford, was also tested for the gene but did not have it.

Maxine said: “The three of us all have children and they are all at the stage now where they have to consider being tested.

“It is a terrible thing to have to go through, there are so many difficult decisions to be made before getting tested and then after the test.”

In 2010 the three sisters started Burnley’s Race for Life.

Maxine said: “We were on quite a high after the Race for Life and the experience of doing that, but four weeks later we came crashing down with the news about Jackie.

“It has been a difficult time ever since but raising this money is a way of trying to get something positive out of it.”