A YOUNG mum who was diagnosed with cervical cancer just 10 days after giving birth to her first daughter is calling on the women of Oxfordshire to help people like her by signing up to Race for Life on Sunday.

Charlotte Allen endured months of radiotherapy, chemotherapy and brachytherapy following the diagnosis in 2015, leaving her barely able to care for her daughter Freya, who was born 10 weeks premature.

When it was over, she and partner Chris decided to bring forward the wedding they were planning and they tied the knot in October 2015.

But their happiness was short-lived and within a month they were given the devastating news that the cancer was back and had spread to her bones. Doctors told her she had between one and two years to live.

The now 36-year-old said: “Freya was just six months old and I was being told I had terminal cancer.

"My world just came crashing down at that point.

“It was like I had an out of body experience as I sat in the room with the doctor and Chris.

"I remember crying– and then I just got up and walked out of there. I had to go and see my baby.”

The family eventually found an orthopaedic oncologist at Oxford’s Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre who agreed to carry out an operation they had never tried before to remove her ischium bone, which forms the lower and back part of the hip bone, as well as almost half of her hip.

Charlotte said: “They told me I would be a guinea pig but they thought it might work. I had nothing to lose.

“On May 23, 2016 I became cancer free and I have been in remission ever since. I feel so lucky."

But it’s not been without it’s life-changing side effects including bladder and bowel incontinence that have forced her to be medically retired from the job she loved.

She said: “People say life is short and just live it. I certainly don’t worry about things like I used to – I just enjoy it for what it is.

“I know better than ever now how vital research is to finding kinder treatments and ultimately beating cancer and I hope people sign up to Race for Life or support it in whatever way they can.”

Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life will be held at Oxford's University Parks on Sunday, July 8 from 10am.

To sign up visit www.raceforlife.org or call 0300 123 0770.