AN inspirational teacher and mum-of-two who persevered through an unexpected cancer diagnosis by raising thousands of pounds for charity has thanked everybody for the support she received in 2016.

Danielle Fitzsimons' world was turned upside down in October 2015 when she was told that she had stage three breast cancer.

The 34-year-old had bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in a bid to eradicate the disease and is now having daily injections to keep the cancer at bay.

As a way of distracting her from her diagnosis and raising funds for charity, Miss Fitzsimons and her friends decided to abstain from drinking alcohol for the whole of January to raise money for Cancer Resarch.

The entourage known as "Fighting Fitz" was then subsequently formed and together the team have raised more than £11,000 by organising football matches, music festivals and children's parties for charity.

The Year Two teacher at St Pius X Catholic Primary School in Barrow said: "It still shocks me now and I can't believe the things that people are still planning.

"I'm back at work now and feeling a lot better but people are still very much on board and trying to help to raise more money.

"It started off as a little group but then that escalated and snowballed. It's amazing to see how many others have been through a similar thing to me and you don't realise the amount of people getting diagnosed with cancer every day.

"Someone got in touch with me saying she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was following my story in the Evening Mail and that was just a complete stranger.

"It's amazing to think that there are people out there who are waiting for the next thing to be put in the paper and it's nice for them to see that it's not all doom and gloom and that you can come out on the other side."

Miss Fitzsimons recently hosted a children's Christmas party at Barrow Cricket Club as well as a festive edition of Rock The Fells at Bootle Village Hall.

Both of these events helped to drum up more money for Cancer Research and although Miss Fitzsimons has no immediate plans for fundraising in the new year she is glad that she managed to raise vital awareness of what she went through.

She said: "Fighting Fitz has been all about raising money and awareness and that is what was important to me from the off.

"I wanted to give something back. If it weren't for Cancer Research I would definitely not be here today."

If you would like to make a donation to Cancer Research via Fighting Fitz, you can visit Miss Fitzsimons' Just Giving page.