A former beauty queen faced a "whirlwind" three months after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
In 2014, Roz Tranfield, from Wallasey in Wirral received the devastating news that she had breast cancer, and after having surgery to remove both her breasts, began chemotherapy treatment on New Years' Eve.
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She told the ECHO : "I was diagnosed in 2014, and it was a bit of a whirlwind as it happened all very quickly, from scans to biopsies to treatment it was all within three months.
"I had the mastectomy, then I had lymph surgery and then on New Years' Eve when I had my appointment for the first chemo session, my husband Paddy and I decided to dye our hair pink the day before and start raising money.
"I'd had such great treatment and felt me really need to help our local hospitals.
"The day I entered Clatterbridge and had my first treatment with pink hair, the hospitals said they had so many hits on their Facebook.
"It was New Year's Eve but I thought no time's a good time, so let's get on with it."
Roz said that five weeks after her mastectomy she returned to work, although with some restrictions in what treatments she carried out, and within three months was "back to normal."
She said: "If you're self employed you do tend to get back into work quicker than if you work for someone.
"Within three months I'm back to normal, but then I started on other treatments, with herceptin every three weeks."
In 2015, she stepped up her charity work, hosting an afternoon tea and organising a fundraising fashion show.
She added: "I only used models who had cancer, it gives people a focus, with having treatment and surgery, it gives you something to look forward to even if you're nervous.
"Putting on the show is great, selling 500 tickets is the hard part - I'm not big on social media, but we do it every year.
"We couldn't last year because of the pandemic and it doesn't feel right to do it this year but we're planning to run another show next year."
Roz says she is a firm believer in the power of positive thinking to help people get through the challenges of cancer treatment although says she finds the reactions of others can be quite "frustrating"
She said: "I found that when I was diagnosed with cancer very shortly afterwards I realised that people can be quite clumsy in what they say to you.
"I thought if people are saying this to me what may they say to other people not as positive and what effect could it have.
"People were saying things, like if I was tattooing someone's eyebrows, and they might say something like, 'gosh if you die, who will do my eyebrows next year?'
"Or someone might ay, 'your eyes don't look as good as they usually do.' I'd say well I am having chemo and have lost my eyelashes.
"Or they'll say 'I know someone who died of breast cancer' and then I'd tell them off and say 'why on earth are you telling me this?' "
Having raised over £130,000 for cancer charities already, Roz says she has no plans to stop any time soon.
She said: "As long as I keep making a difference I'll keep going and I'll keep fundraising as there needs to be some much money put into research for different kinds of cancer.
"The advice I give to people is it's not always the end of the world, it's a hurdle to get over - you get over it and move on.
"It might be a slightly different path but you move on to a different way, you might think differently, it can make you feel differently, but you deal with it and keep moving.
"The one thing I say to people is never ever give up in life, no matter what anything throws at you - never give up."
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