Cancer patient selling dream hol

Kathleen Lewis will now be able to recoup the money she spent on an Alaskan cruise.

Mrs Lewis, of Pant near Oswestry, planned to go on the cruise with her husband Rhys.

She said today the decision to give up the idea of travelling across the Atlantic had been a great relief after weeks of stress.

But Mrs Lewis thanked the scores of people who contacted her with insurance advice after her plight was made public.

Now Mr and Mrs Lewis are to look at holidays closer to home.

The 52-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer last September and in May was told the cancer had spread to her bones.

The couple booked a trip to Canada and Alaska but discovered that insurance companies could not give her a quote for travelling, because of her illness.

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson this week made an appeal for help and Mrs Lewis was inundated with telephone calls from people across Shropshire and the Midlands.

"People were just wonderful and we cannot thank them enough." said Mrs Lewis "But we have talked long and hard over the last couple of days and in the end decided to take up an offer we had from someone to buy the holiday from us.

"It means we get our money back and it will be an end to all the stress."

She added: "It is certainly not an end to us planning a holiday. But it will be nearer home."