BBC RADIO Oxford presenter Alison Booker, who underwent a double mastectomy three years ago, has revealed she is suffering from inoperable cancer.

The mother-of-two, from Wantage, has been told she could have as little as three years to live after a scan revealed cancerous tumours growing in her lungs.

But despite the prognosis, she says she intends to continue to live her life to the full and three weeks ago married her partner of five years, Andrew Chapman, 40, at Oxford Register Office.

Former afternoon show presenter Alison, who celebrated her 43rd birthday last Friday, said: "I started to feel short of breath at the beginning of the year and went to the doctor.

"He thought I was anaemic, but a chest X-ray showed half of one of my lungs was full of fluid and when they drained it they found cancer cells.

"I was very scared, but in a way I was almost relieved. After having breast cancer three-and-half years ago, I had always worried it would return and I just thought 'right, it's back, bring it on'.

"Of course, when they told me they could not operate on it I was very frightened there have been lots of tears.

"But although I know there's a chance the cancer will get me in the end, the doctors say they can treat it to give me more time, and my 'plan A' is to go through all the treatment options, believing that by the time I come to the end of them, there will be other treatments and maybe even a cure."

Alison is taking hormonal drugs to slow down the advance of the secondary cancer.

Her most recent scan showed the tumours were still growing, but she was hopeful for better news at a further scan in a month's time.

"I'm just playing it by ear at the moment," she said. "But I may have to have chemotherapy further down the line.

"My bosses here at the BBC have been fantastic," she added.

"And even though I cannot work as much as I did before because the drugs make me so tired, they have created a role for me and I am working behind the scenes in production."

Alison beamed when asked about her recent wedding.

"Andrew had been asking me to marry him for years. I actually proposed to him during the last Children In Need (November 2005), but it was his idea to bring the wedding forward," she said.

"It rained and the music didn't all work properly, but it was absolutely perfect. My 15-year-old daughter Joanne was bridesmaid, my 14-year-old son Douglas wore a suit all day and friends and family shouted out comments and encouragement all the way through."

Asked how her new husband and children are coping with her illness, she said: "Sometimes I think it's hardest for the families of cancer sufferers."

She added: "I don't want anyone making a fuss and I don't want to be called brave I didn't choose to have cancer, it chose me and I am definitely not brave. But even if this cancer does get me in the end, hopefully it will not be for some time and I'll face it fighting."