A WOMAN who has become a standard bearer for breast cancer sufferers led a North-East walk backing research into the disease yesterday.

Christina Beck led people on a 10km walk through the Tyne Riverside Country Park, in Newburn, near Newcastle.

About 250 people took part in the trek along the banks of the River Tyne.

Mrs Beck, 45, of Wallsend, North Tyneside, a court officer for Newcastle City Council, said she was living proof that effective treatments can be developed.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 39, while living in North Yorkshire, in March 1999.

While undergoing treatment to overcome the disease, she was also diagnosed with skin and cervical cancer.

Over the following 18 months she underwent nine operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She was joined at the start of yesterday's event by Dr Mark Verrill, a Newcastle cancer clinician and researcher, who is funded by Cancer Research UK.