A woman has spoken about her experience of being diagnosed with cancer after losing her partner to the same disease.

Nese Nafi, 40, was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2017 after ignoring a lump in her breast for nearly a year before getting it checked.

It brought back painful memories for Ms Nafi, who in 2005 lost her partner Firat Dellal to leukaemia when he was just 28-years-old.

She said: “We had been together for eight years. He was ill for three years and I went through that with him. It haunts me to think about it now.

“I lost him nearly 14 years ago, but it feels like yesterday. From being a big, strong, strapping man, he just deteriorated until there was nothing left. Those memories make my own situation more difficult.”

Ms Nafi was diagnosed with breast cancer the day before her 38th birthday, and felt it was the type of “thing that wouldn’t happen”.

She said: ““If it hadn’t become painful, I probably wouldn’t have bothered going to the doctors at all.

“It was utterly devastating when I was told I had cancer. I had gone to the hospital appointment on my own.”

In June 2017, Ms Nafi had a mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery. She was in the operating theatre for over 12 hours.

She has undergone further corrective surgery and, two years on, she is still healing.

Follow up tests confirmed the cancer had not spread, sparing Ms Nafi from having to go through chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment.

However, she will have to take Tamoxifen for up to 10 years.

But determined to stay positive, Ms Nafi has turned her cancer scars into “art”, covering them with tattoos.

She said: “Now when I look down, I don’t see breast cancer, I see a beautiful piece of art.”

Ms Nafi will be a special guest at Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life in Finsbury Park, North London, on Saturday (July 20).

She said: “Together, we can help beat this devastating disease and I want to encourage as many people as possible to join the fight and sign up to the Race for Life.

“My experience means I understand all too clearly why Cancer Research UK’s work is so important.”