FIVE years ago Nikki Poole was told she had a week to live.

But in little over two weeks, the mother-of-two will tackle one of the world’s most famous marathons for an Oxfordshire charity.

Ms Poole, from Abingdon, was struck down by a mystery illness in 2005, shortly after the birth of her second son, Freddie.

After her weight plummeted from nine stone to six, doctors at Oxford’s John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals told Ms Poole she must have blood cancer.

But they could not find no evidence of it in her body.

The day before she was due to start chemotherapy, a junior doctor spotted something that made him call off the treatment.

Ms Poole, 42, said: “They had taken biopsies from everywhere, my liver, spleen, everywhere. The junior doctor was examining one and spotted something which was one tenth of the size of a normal red blood cell. It was the ‘eureka’ moment.”

Ms Poole, a partner at Hedges Solicitors in Wallingford, had contracted visceral leishmaniasis, a deadly parasitic disease, from a sandfly bite during a holiday in Greece. The condition, also known as black fever, can be fatal if left untreated.

But within two weeks, Ms Poole was recovering at home.

She said: “I was so desperately ill that when they told me I had a week to live, there was a certain amount of resignation.

“I felt as if every cell in my body was poisoned and I was so weak I couldn’t walk. I had to be stretchered everywhere.

“My legs were like twigs.

“But the thought of leaving my two sons, I can’t even begin to put into words. Just heartbreaking.”

She said the experience changed her outlook on life and after visiting the Footsteps Foundation, in Warborough, near Wallingford, she vowed to raise cash for the charity, which provides physio- therapy for children suffering from neurological disorders.

Ms Poole will tackle the New York Marathon on Saturday, November 7, her first attempt at running a marathon.

She is now running between 30 and 40 miles a week in preparation for the gruelling run.

She said: “Thankfully my boys are both healthy, but visiting the centre and seeing the amazing work they do for these children made me vow to help. I was there when one child took their first steps in a walker and it was an incredible moment for me.

“I’m literally blown away by the Footsteps Centre and what amazing work they do for those children.”

To sponsor Ms Poole go to justgiving.com/nikki-nyc-marathon