HOW would you cope if you were to be given the worst possible news?

Told that you had an illness that could not be cured by any amount of medics, prayers or good wishes? One that would kill you long 'before your time.'

It's a situation that most of us, with luck, will never have to face. But it was the news given to our columnist, Kate Butler.

The cancer gave her no choice. But, in the face of such a stark diagnosis, she did make a choice.

She chose to live. Fully.

She refused to be bowed by her illness - speaking out candidly both in her online blog and in the column she wrote within this newspaper.

She wanted to raise awareness, not by glossing over the bad bits, but by presenting a life with cancer 'warts and all.'

She was passionate about raising awareness for Worcestershire Royal's Breast Unit and, in a last heartbreaking blog post, described, humbly, how charity work had enriched her life.

She leaves an inspiring legacy - a lesson to us all in how to really live.