RADIOTHERAPY stung hardest the second time.

The treatment was helping to kill the cancer that had spread from mum Ana Kelly’s tonsils.

It left her exhausted – unable to manage more than a few sentences in excruciating taxi trips to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.

As a teenager, 35 years earlier, Ana had breezed through radiotherapy in London to cure a tumour around her eye.

“I was staying Monday to Friday in Chelsea,” said Ana, 51. “It was a bit of a jolly.

“I went into this thinking that the radiotherapy would be as easy as it was when I was a fit teenager.”

She had a rude awakening.

Old Town mum-of-one Ana said: “I woke up in August with a lump on my neck, literally overnight.”

Doctors diagnosed a cancer of the tonsils. “I had my tonsils out, my teeth out – all to get me ready for radiotherapy,” she said.

In December and January she went for treatment..

Ana added: “That was the first time I couldn’t eat - I couldn’t swallow. I only had a couple of days’ break over Christmas.”

She travelled to Oxford every day for the treatment.

Ana said: “You saw the jolliest people there, just absolutely exhausted by it.

“That journey just really adds to the tiredness you feel. If there was a unit in Swindon it would really help.”

Fearing that she might lose it gave her a renewed love for life. “I’m living life to the full,” Ana said.

She set herself “targets” to get her through, such as flying to Malaga and in July she took son Korrie, 10, on a month-long backpacking tour of Thailand.

Ana said: “I’m under no illusion that the cancer can come back. I just think it’s important to live life to the full.”

Her close friend, Kay Hurley, was not so lucky. A fellow school mum, Kay lost her fight with cancer in June – leaving behind two daughters.

Ana said: “She was fantastic, a real lover of life – only 44 and an ex-raver.”

As a qualified celebrant, Ana helped Kay to plan her own funeral. “It was heartbreaking, but she kept positive,” said Ana.

The “wonderful” ceremony saw Kay’s friends and family dress in yellow in commemoration of the mum’s bright attitude to life.

A former teacher, Ana quit her job at Swindon College last summer. After enjoying the pastoral aspects of her teaching job, she trained as a celebrant – helping people plan their funerals and memorial ceremonies.

Ana said: “I think being a celebrant you realise how valuable life is.”

Now, she estimates that 90 per cent of the funerals she takes are for someone lost to cancer.

“It’s just such a recurring story,” she said. “It’s quite sobering to realise how many people are affected.”

Now, Ana is hoping to raise money for Prospect Hospice, which supported pal Kay, and the Brighter Futures appeal.

She is organising a workshop for those interested in thinking about planning a funeral.

Ana said that planning for ones’ own ceremony can help your relatives after your passing: “It makes it a heck of a lot easier for family members to deal with. Feeling that somebody has had the send-off they wanted is really important.”

The workshop is at Savernake Street Social Hall on Saturday, November 25, 2pm-4pm. For more, visit: www.facebook.com/events/482884845415267.