ONE YEAR ago today, Gail Hepworth received the news everyone dreads. A seemingly desperate diagnosis revealed that she was suffering from advanced bone cancer.

This grim discovery was not unprecedented for Gail, who had already suffered from breast cancer. But now the earlier cancer had spread to her skeleton and she was put on morphine to control her extreme pain.

Such are some of the medical details that define Gail's precarious condition. Yet today is not a day to dwell just on what has gone wrong for Gail with such potentially stark consequences. No, today is a day to celebrate the towering human spirit that exists in this one woman. Gail herself might not even see matters this way, yet to those who have watched her carry on with life under the most difficult of circumstances, she is an example of courage and determination.

This 40-year-old mother-of-two from Hemingbrough, near Selby, has also been an inspiration to many people, both for the way she has fought on, and also because she has refused to accept the bleakest of medical diagnoses.

Gail has faced many great problems, not least being prescribed the wrong drug - for which mistake she eventually received a full apology from York Health Trust. When she was told by British doctors that her cancer was beyond treatment, Gail was determined to try complementary treatment at the Schachter clinic in New York. Readers of this newspaper, whose generosity has so often been quickened by such a plight, helped to raise the £13,000 necessary for Gail's trip to the United States.

After a course of complementary medicine, Gail has managed to come off the high doses of morphine that were controlling her pain. And her life, though far from normal, is being lived with greater vigour than she could ever have hoped for one year ago.

Gail is determined to live as long as possible to see her children grow up. Alternative treatments have undoubtedly helped her, but what has also seen her through to this unexpected day is her sheer will to live.