A WRITER with terminal cancer is shedding light on life with the illness through a frank blog which tracks her condition.

Vanessa Lafaye, 54, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and in 2014 discovered it had returned as stage four metastatic breast cancer. It has now spread to her liver, lungs, brain and bones, and she has been told she has up to a five year life expectancy.

She has just published her second novel, At First Light, in paperback, as well as writing the blog on living with cancer.

In Living While Dying, she vents her frustration at the lack of research into the disease which kills 11,500 people a year, highlights what not to say to those with a fatal illness and follows the symptoms of rigorous treatment.

She said: “I never imagined it would touch so many people. We know so little about the illness I wanted to give an unvarnished account.

“People often don’t know what to say to me. It makes you feel like they don’t care or aren’t willing to think about it. Some people who I classed as close friends reacted this way and some who I thought of as acquaintances have jumped in and want to engage. You learn a lot about people when this happens.

“Even people close to me didn’t understand what I was facing until they read the blog, there is lack of understanding. It is ironic that the good news about primary cancer research is helping to mask the problems faced by people with secondary cancer.

“Breast cancer effects 30 percent of all women, and 30 percent people who have had primary breast cancer go on to suffer this. That is nearly 11,500 people. There is not enough being done.”

Just two charities, Second Hope and Secondary1st, research solely into metastatic breast cancer.

Despite her diagnosis, Mrs Lafaye, of Coldharbour Lane, has three more books planned.

She continued: “There is a great big question mark over whether I will get to write them. You stay alive when you have things you really want to be there for.

"It is a weird balance to strike between trying to enjoy what’s happening but focussing on what is planned to keep going.”

Read her blog on http://www.vanessalafaye.wordpress.com