A PART-TIME soldier ignored doctors' warnings that she could have breast cancer to finish her tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Captain Angela Landells, from Newton Aycliffe, in County Durham, was determined to see out her service treating injured squaddies in an Afghan field hospital.

The 46-year-old was three weeks from the end of her second tour of duty at Camp Bastion when she found a lump in her breast.

After an ultra-sound scan, doctors recommended that she should fly home immediately for further investigation.

But the Army reservist - who works as a healthcare practitioner in a walk-in centre in civilian life - opted to stay with her comrades in Helmand Province until her tour of duty was completed.

Angela, who is running in the Darlington Race for Life this weekend, said: "Everybody wanted me to come home, but because I went out there with everyone, I wanted to come home with them. I thought I'll finish my tour."

Despite her suspected cancer Angela carried on with her gruelling day-to-day duties as a team leader with 201 Field Hospital for another three weeks.

As well as treating wounded soldiers, she was on constant alert for possible Taliban attacks and had to carry a loaded weapon at all times.

"We did have a couple of suicide bomber attacks when people got inside the compound but, luckily, I didnt have to use my weapon," she said.

Other than her commanding officer, senior medics and a few close friends, no-one else was aware of her suspected breast cancer.

"Because of the circumstances, time flew over and when I got back to the UK my GP booked me straight into Darlington Memorial Hospital," she said.

Doctors diagnosed breast cancer on May 8 last year, just a day before her 45th birthday.

Angela underwent surgery, followed by radiotherapy and is currently being treated with tamoxifen, a drug which is considered to be the most important in the history of breast cancer treatment and which has saved the lives of thousands of women.

Cancer Research UK funded the clinical trials which confirmed the effectiveness of tamoxifen.

The charity is a major funder of breast cancer research in the UK, helping to develop treatments that mean that eight out of ten women now survive their breast cancer for at least 20 years.

Angela, who has two grown-up children, Matthew, 24 and Laura, 22 and two grandchildren, Riley, three and Ava, one, said she had signed up for the Darlington Race for Life to help the ongoing fight to defeat breast cancer and other cancers.

She is now in training for the 5k all-women event which is due to take place at 11am on Sunday (June 9) at Darlington's South Park.

Since Race for Life events started in 1994 six million women have taken part all over the UK, raising £493m for Cancer Research UK.

Helen Tibbott, Cancer Research UK's North-East Events Manager, urged people to join Angela.

"There are more than 200 cancers and we won't give up until we find cures for them all," she said.

Last year, more than 2,700 women took part in Race for Life in Darlington, raising £130,000. This year, organisers need 2,800 women and girls to stride out to help raise money for vital research.

Money raised through Race for Life allows Cancer Research UK's doctors, nurses and scientists to advance research which is helping to save the lives of men, women and children across the North-East.

To enter Darlington Race for Life visit raceforlife.org or call 0845 600 6050