FORMER mayor of Wallingford Dee Cripps is launching a fundraising group for Macmillan nurses as she battles breast cancer.

Ms Cripps was diagnosed with cancer in July and had a lump removed from her breast the following month.

She has been undergoing chemotherapy at the cancer centre at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, and will start a course of radiotherapy next month when the chemotherapy is completed.

With help from a team of Macmillan nurses at Oxford hospitals, she is establishing a group called Macmillan Wallingford, to raise funds for the Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

Ms Cripps, a town councillor for the past 12 years, said: “I’m battling through chemotherapy at the moment which is a hard slog.

“But I have still managed to update the Wallingford Experience, an events diary for next year which is on the town council’s website.

“You have to keep going and you can’t keep a good woman down.

“I want to support Macmillan nurses because they do a wonderful job supporting patients and their families.

“As soon as I was diagnosed at the John Radcliffe Hospital I was introduced to my Macmillan nurse.

“Macmillan sponsor the nurses for three-year periods and at the moment there are 48 in Oxford.

“You quickly realise that they are an important part of the process of getting you through, and that being diagnosed with cancer is not the end.”

Ms Cripps, who has lived in Wallingford for 40 years, added that she has been overwhelmed with support from people in the town.

“Everyone has been so supportive and offered me lifts to hospital and sent me good wishes, flowers and cards,” she said.

One business in the town that has supported Ms Cripps is the Spirit Hair Company in High Street which helped to fit wigs for her as she undergoes chemotherapy.

A fundraising night at Spirit raised more than £361 for the cause. Ms Cripps is pictured, front left, with shop owner Mikaela Martin, right, at the event.

Ms Cripps, who runs an antiques shop in Lamb Arcade, Wallingford, added: “When I come out of this in 2012 I will go headlong into fundraising events for the charity.”

Macmillan Cancer Support fundraising manager for Oxfordshire Julian Knowles said: “When someone like Dee decides to set up a fundraising group that’s a real bonus for us because she is so well known and has lots of superb contacts. It’s fantastic that she is doing this at a time when she is receiving treatment herself.”

For information about the charity, see macmillan.org.uk