A MOTHER-of-three who battled cancer for three years and was told she may never leave hospital, is launching her own business.

Emma Davies, 32, organised her own funeral and had the heartbreaking task of writing letters to her three children Katie, 13, Charlotte, 10, and William, eight, as she feared the worst.

Initially doctors told the former care worker she had rheumatoid arthritis. But a routine chest X-ray revealed she also had something more sinister.

The scan showed three tumours resting on her heart, lungs and oesophagus , and others elsewhere.

Shortly afterwards she was given the devastating news that she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, type three. The worst is type four.

Over the next three years she underwent five types of chemotherapy, stem cell treatment and was given a massive blast of radiotherapy.

Mrs Davies, who lives with husband Darren and her children in Victoria Road, Bicester, said: “Doctors told me to prepare everything. I planned my funeral, wrote letters to the children which was exasperating, and my parents as well. It was just awful.

“I don’t think they had much hope for me.

“When I went into hospital for the six weeks for stem cell treatment I did not think I was going to come out.

“A lot of people told me not to tell the children it was cancer, but medical staff and my counsellor all said it was best to be honest with them.

“I didn’t need to worry really. They just went along with it.”

She believes having a positive attitude helped her beat the disease, but said going through the treatment was very tough.

“It was a battle of wills. Every time I saw light at the end of the tunnel, a huge train came towards me. But this shop is a huge light for me.”

Mrs Davies wanted to tell her positive story because of all the negativity that surrounds the disease. She said: “I think Jade Goody is amazing. But I don’t want people to lose sight of the fact that cancer doesn’t mean death.

“On television you never see a success story, and I thought I would make a point of telling mine.”

Mrs Davies said her first symptom was a cough she just couldn’t shake – she still has it and may never get rid of it.

She came up with the idea of an old fashioned sweet shop after a recent holiday at her parents’ home on the Isle of Wight.

Returning to Bicester, she walked past a former florist’s in Deans Court, and realised it was the perfect spot.

She said: “I have never been impulsive, always determined, but this was a ‘spur of the moment’ thing.”

The shop opened on Saturday.

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk