TWO Oxford sisters who survived the same type of cancer are rallying the county's women to sign up for this year's Race for Life and fight cancer.

Allie and Jess Chu were both diagnosed with thyroid cancer within four years of each other, and both live to tell the tale.

Allie's husband, Igi, was not so lucky: he his own battle with the disease.

Now the sisters are channelling all their energy into running this year's Race for Life in Oxford this September, raising funds and awareness in the hope that other families will be spared the pain they endured.

It is now four years since the sisters' worlds were torn apart.

In 2012, Jess, now aged 37, had gone into hospital for a check-up on her thyroid gland when doctors discovered she had two cancerous tumours on it.

She was given a general anaesthetic and doctors were able to remove the gland so quickly she did not even have a chance to tell her sister about her diagnosis.

By the time Jess had her operation, doctors at the same hospital had put her sister's husband into an induced coma after discovering he had T-cell Lymphoma of the kidney.

Igi was kept in the coma until a week later when doctors decided it was time to turn off his life support.

In all the tumult, Jess never told her sister that she herself had narrowly escaped a similar fate.

Mother-of-two Jess said: "My diagnosis came as such a shock - I had gone to the hospital on my own thinking it was just a routine appointment to check my scar.

"The very next day Igi was diagnosed with cancer. He was already quite ill and my sister and all of us were really worried so I chose not to tell Allie at first.

"A week later we were stood by his bed as the machines were turned off. I heard his little boy say ‘bye daddy’ which will live with me forever.

"I felt fraudulent. I felt incredibly guilty that I had got off so lightly while Igi was being hit so hard.

"There was I being told they had found cancer, but they had got it and I would not need further treatment while just a week later Igi had passed away.

"I had seen the flip side of this horrid disease so quickly and it really brought it home to me."

Three years later the Chu family were dealt another blow when Allie, who lives in Tackley with her three children, was diagnosed with the exact same cancer Jess had.

The pre-school manager, 35, said: "When they told me it definitely panicked me: I had three children who had already lost their dad.

"Even though my sister had had this and was fine, you still worry: I think people don’t realise cancer can affect anybody at any time.

"Some of us are really lucky because certain cancers can be treated and have had a lot of research, but others aren’t."

Allie underwent surgery last December and has since been given the all-clear.

Now the sisters are both planning to run Oxford's first ever Pretty Muddy event on September 17 in South Park, Headington – a Race for Life event raising money for Cancer Research UK.

Jess added: "You cannot beat the sense of achievement you feel when you cross the finish line, no matter how long it takes you to get round or how you do it - whether you are running or walking – because you are part of something special and you are doing it for a good cause."

To enter Race for Life visit raceforlife.org or call 0300 123 0770.