A MOTHER from Cheltenham has vowed to spend the rest of her life as a nurse helping others if she beats cancer.

Jo Ayers, 43, was diagnosed with bowel cancer last summer in the middle of her nursing training at Oxford Brookes University, but she carried on studying between punishing treatments.

She said: "When you want to get something done you make an effort and find a way.

"Sometimes I would have treatment on a Thursday and find myself at university three days later feeling nauseous, but I had to do it.

"The tragedy is I am fully qualified but too poorly at the moment to work."

Jo's dream is to work in the oncology department at Cheltenham General Hospital, where she receives treatment.

"They are tremendous there. They are first-rate health care professionals and that is what I want to be," she said.

"My favourite placement when I was studying was the oncology department – they are amazing."

Her hopes are now pinned on finding a supplier of the cancer drug Avastin, which is not available on the NHS.

It will cost about £21,000 for one course of the chemotherapy drug.

She said: "I have got advanced cancer and I cannot afford to faff around.

"Some people think nothing of spending £20,000 on a car, so why should I not spend the money to save my life."

Jo is set to be awarded the Madeleine Collin Award 2010 at the university, which is given to graduates who demonstrate outstanding personal achievement.

Doctors discovered a tumour in July last year and Jo went into surgery straight away and underwent a course of chemotherapy.

The cancer returned in her liver and she had radiotherapy and more chemotherapy.

While still feeling sick with advanced cancer, she drove from Cheltenham to Oxford to get to her lectures – sometimes with a chemotherapy pump still attached to her.

Jo, who lives in Shipton Oliffe and is mum to Louis, nine, and Hattie, six, was also diagnosed with dyslexia a few years ago, so she had to re-sit her pharmacology exam while she was having fortnightly treatments.

Because the cancer has spread into her lungs, doctors have given Jo only a two-week respite between chemotherapy sessions in a bid to fight it.

"I will probably have a chemotherapy bottle swinging from me when I go to collect the award and I will look a bit yellow, but I am looking forward to it," she said.

"All I want now is to be able to wear my staff nurse's uniform, which I haven't had a chance to do yet."

Her twin sister Annabel Mathias, who lives in Bishop's Cleeve, is a community sister in Evesham and knows Jo will make a fine nurse.

"Jo is still fighting this disease. I just want to shout her praises. She is brave, beautiful and brilliant," she said.

"She flabbergasted all the lecturers when she carried on going in despite how ill she was feeling. It is so easy to feel rubbish and forget about your achievements. That is why I wanted everyone to know what she has done."

■ Avastin can help patients with advanced bowel cancer that has spread to other organs, but the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence says the cost of the drug is too high for the extra benefit it gives patients.

The drug costs almost £21,000 per patient and an estimated 6,500 people a year could be eligible for the drug.

Clinical data submitted by the manufacturer shows it can typically offer patients an extra six weeks of life when added to chemotherapy drugs capecitabine and oxaliplatin.