Cancer survivor Emma Brown has raised £5,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support in just under a year with the help of her friends and family.

The 40-year-old police officer, who lives in Marlborough, went to doctors in December last year having developed a pain in her lower abdomen from coughing so much when she had a cold.

Thinking that she may have appendicitis, her doctor immediately sent her to Great Western Hospital in Swindon where she had a scan and it was discovered she had a 17.5cm tumour on her right ovary.

After an operation to remove the tumour and ovary, Miss Brown left hospital on December 23. A few weeks later she returned for what she thought was just a check-up but instead was given the devastating news that she had cancer.

She said: “I was scared but I decided to face it with a smile and as much courage as I could muster.

“I also decided that as I was not going to be able to go back to work for a while, I would use the opportunity to give something to those that were not lucky enough to have the tremendous support that I had and may not have been so lucky in their diagnosis.”

As well as a sponsored head shave in February, she has made and sold loom bands for the appeal.

In July, during the Marlborough Jazz Festival, staff from the town’s fire station – where her partner Justin Kimber is crew manager – donated money from their bar and barbecue.

Swindon’s Gable Cross police station, where Miss Brown works, held a Macmillan Coffee Morning, and collection tins have been put in shops around Marlborough.

Miss Brown returned to work in June and was given the all-clear on July 31 after chemotherapy.

She said the messages she has received have reduced her to “tears of pride and happiness”.

She added: “I am a cancer survivor and I hope that my fundraising and the efforts and support of Macmillan Cancer Support will go some way to helping other people see sunshine through the clouds.”