JOANNA Bundy has only just finished treatment for bowel cancer, but she is already getting her trainers on to help the charity that supported her while she was fighting for her life.

The 31-year-old, of Highworth, had her last round of chemotherapy on April 30. She has now started training for the Great North Run to raise funds for the charity Beating Bowel Cancer and wants everyone to be aware of the symptoms.

“Bowel cancer is the second biggest killer of the cancers and there is not enough awareness about it,” she said.

“I am relatively young to get it. Going to the doctor’s when I did saved my life.”.

Joanna was training for last year’s Great North Run when she went to her GP because she was passing blood and suffering from swelling and pain in her stomach and tiredness.

“I just put feeling tired down to my training for the run but I got referred straight away,” she said.

“There are four stages and I was stage three. If I had left it any longer and got to stage four, it would have been just palliative care. I was lucky I went when I did.

“I did the Great North Run last year, a week after being diagnosed, because I had already trained to do it.”

Joanna had a tumour removed from her bowel and underwent eight cycles of chemotherapy at Great Western Hospital over six months.

She is due to have a scan later this month to see if the treatment has been successful.

Joanna, who has raised £350 so far, is hoping to raise hundreds of pounds for Beating Bowel Cancer after they helped her when times got tough.

“I have had support from them, I found them really helpful,” she said.

“They have got a patient forum and you can speak to people who are in the same boat as you.

“When I am running I will be thinking of all the people who are suffering and about the amount of money and the awareness I am raising.”

She has also been raising funds by collecting outside Sainsburys in the Brunel, Aldi in Stratton, Next in Greenbridge and Tesco in Ocotal Way.

Joanna, who will be cheered on by her fiance Alan Barnes at the event in September, is hoping to beat her time from last year by completing the race in two hours and 15 minutes.

To sponsor Joanna visit www.justigiving.com/ jobundy.