A CANCER surviving Stourbridge health and sports therapist has successfully completed a series of tough challenges to raise cash and awareness for a charity helping women with ovarian cancer.

Jayne Powell, who is a member of Stourbridge Lawn Tennis and Squash Club, has this year completed four sprint triathlons plus a team half ironman event in Mallorca in aid of the charity Target Ovarian Cancer, together with tennis club pals Michelle Tromans and Dave Ruscoe.

The gutsy 53-year-old, who has battled back to health after her own battle with ovarian cancer - diagnosed when she was just 41, said: “We had never done anything like this before.”

Going by the team name of Health and Sport UK, the trio have just returned from Peguera, Mallorca, where they competed with professional triathletes, including GB number one Joe Skipper, to complete their final challenge.

The course was a total of 113K, split between a 2K sea swim, 90km cycle and 21K run - and Jayne said: "We had a target to complete the course within the allocated time of eight-and-a-half hours. Our total finishing time was six hours 41 minutes.

“We all finished well within the times that we had set ourselves and our own personal expectations.The hard training paid off.”

She added: "I'd never swum 2K in the sea before, Dave had never done a 90K cycle ride and Michelle had never run 20K before. We each kind of pushed ourselves to our limits. I found it really hard but just loved the feeling of being able to do it."

Jayne said she wanted to raise money and awareness for the charity after herself surviving the disease which is known as the silent killer as many women go undiagnosed - until it is too late.

She told the News: "The symptoms weren’t obvious to me and in fact there were very few.

She said she was "very lucky" that her GP recognised the signs and she was treated immediately and she added: This saved my life.

"It is important that we raise awareness of the symptoms and that women recognise them and get medical help and support immediately.”

Signs to look out for are persistent bloating, stomach pain, needing to urinate more frequently and difficulty eating/feeling full more quickly.

But Jayne said: "I just couldn't get into my jeans, although I hadn't put on any weight - I knew something wasn't right. Fortunately my GP was really on the ball. I'm really grateful to her."

She said when tests were carried out medics found a tumour the size of a "rugby ball".

Luckily for Jayne, the cancer was detected early enough to be treated with just surgery and she has gone on to make a full recovery.

To boost the team’s fundraising efforts, in support of Target Ovarian Cancer, go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/jaynepowell1.

They have raised around £350 to date but hope to pull in a few more pounds over the coming weeks.