A CANCER survivor has encouraged people to take part in a major fundraising campaign.

Mum-of-one Laura Andrews was diagnosed with bowel cancer in February last year after she had just got married to husband Dayle.

The 25-year-old has since been successfully treated with surgery and chemotherapy.

Laura, of Andrews Walk, said: “Just as I found out I had cancer I also found out that I was eight weeks pregnant so with a lot of hard thought and numerous talks with the doctors I decided I had to have a termination as it was unclear how much the cancer had spread.

“Luckily, after CT scans and MRI scans, they found the cancer hasn’t started to spread so I had an operation where they removed my rectum and the whole of my colon as it was full of over 120 cancerous growths.

“I was left with an ileostomy bag for life.

“My cancer was at stage two and if I had left it longer before I went to the GP it would have started to spread around my body.

“They’ve also found growths in my stomach so every six months I need to have an endoscopy to keep an eye on them.”

And Laura has called for people to support Stand Up to Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.

She is posing with five wristbands on her arm to highlight the number of people – like her – who are diagnosed with cancer every hour in the North West.

It has driven Laura to support Stand Up to Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4.

The campaign raises money to speed up life-saving research and is supported by a host of celebrities including Davina McCall, Edith Bowman, Alan Carr, Joel Dommett and Kirsty Allsopp.

She added: “I’m so grateful for the treatment that saved my life.

“It’s thanks to research that I’m still standing.

“That’s why I’m giving my heartfelt support to Stand Up To Cancer.”