AN exhilarating pillion ride on a Harley Davidson and a foreign holiday are among the "promises" which will be auctioned off next month in aid of breast cancer research.

Kidderminster support group Bosom Friends - set up by and for women diagnosed with the disease - has organised the event as its annual fund-raiser to boost research funds.

Organisers hope to raise hundreds of pounds for charity by selling off the promises, which also include a narrowboat holiday, a Co-op trolley dash, paintings of local scenes, a posh weekend break and football memorabilia.

One of the members helping put together the event is grandmother Sue Brooks.

She recalled how she was first diagnosed.

"I had made an appointment to get my elbow checked out, of all things. I had fallen while out shopping and bruised it quite badly. Just as I was getting up to leave I asked the doctor to check out a lump I had found in my breast.

"Two weeks later I was at Kidderminster Hospital and within four hours of having a mammogram and tests I was told it was cancer."

Sue, now 55, underwent a mastectomy a week later. She has now been free of the disease for three years - and wants to help other women in her position understand there is life after breast cancer.

Bosom Friends, which meets on the second Tuesday every month at the hospital's Millbrook Suite, is a lifeline for the scores of women in Wyre Forest given the dreaded news every year.

Sue, a grandmother of three, was initially sceptical about joining the support group. "I was expecting lots of crying but it's nothing like that. We are all there to support each other and to help each other stay positive and have a laugh. Life does go on.

"The survival rates now are really good so it's not a death sentence. People can and should talk about it - and they should certainly check themselves regularly and go to the doctor as soon as they find anything unusual."