‘I might not get through my bucket list but I’m going to try my bloody best!’

A BRAVE Mornington woman battling terminal metastatic breast cancer has created a fundraising appeal to help her fulfil her bucket list.

Brenda Courell (53), was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, courageously beating the deadly disease but last year she got the devastating news that the illness had returned and had spread to her sternum and lung and this time sadly was incurable.

The mum of one has started a bucket list to embark on dream holidays and fun adventures in light of her tragic diagnosis saying "now is the time to start living my life and making the most out of the time I have left."

So far inspirational Brenda has ticked off returning to her much loved holiday destination on the Costa Del Sol in Spain and attended a Coldplay gig in Hampden Park in Glasgow.

Still on her to do list is spending New Year's Eve with her son Killian (22), in Amsterdam and dream trips to The Maldives and Croatia.

"I have two years to live. I was given three years this time last year, it's the worst thing you could hear, I'm only 53 but I've come to terms with it."

The Mornington woman made the difficult decision to stop treatment recently as it was having such a negative effect on her body and mind.

"I couldn't take anymore; I thought it was going to kill me. I figured I'd rather have quality rather than quantity," she added.

"Now it's gone out of my body and I feel like Brenda again.

"My next plan is that I want spend New Year's Eve with my son in Amsterdam. We've always wanted to go there.

"I'd love to go to the Maldives, I'm not sure I'd be able for the flight but it's staying on the list. I also want to see Croatia. My dad's family is from the west of Ireland and I love it there so I want to spend weekends heading in the car with my son and just have special times."

It was a kind gesture from a stranger that spurred Brenda on to follow her dreams as she explains:

I was gifted tickets to see Dermot Kennedy in St Anne's Park back in May via a post I had about my bucket list on a Facebook Page for women called Drogheda Dolls. Someone else asked what else is on your bucket list and I said I'd love to see Coldplay and a girl called Claire O'Sullivan private messaged me and said I have two tickets for Coldplay in Hampden Park.

"She said I want to bring you with me and I want to gift you the whole trip. I met her for the first time at 4am outside Dublin Airport and we instantly clicked.

"I danced and sang for two-and-a-half hours; I left my heart and my voice in Hampden Park. It was just the most amazing experience of my life.

"That gave me the confidence to know that I could start doing stuff.

"I thought f**k this, I'm just going to start living my life now. I sat down, and started writing my bucket list, I might not get through them all but I'm going to try my bloody best!"

Brenda's journey with the disease began eight years ago but with treatment and surgery she was eventually cancer free.

"I was just about to go into hospital to have my gall bladder removed and the night before I felt a lump on my left breast.

"My operation had been cancelled so many times - that I said I'm not telling them until the gall bladder is gone because I was in so much pain with that.

"When I came around from surgery, I said to one of the doctors I found a lump in my left breast. After that I got sepsis, I got really really ill and I was in isolation in St Vincent's Hospital for six weeks.

"I had lost four stone in the six weeks; it nearly killed me. And then I had to go straight into treatment for the breast cancer. I had the lump removed and I did eight weeks of radio therapy."

This time round an x-ray for a shoulder break Brenda suffered whilst holidaying in Spain resulted in medics spotting a shadow on her right lung. A full body scan showed a tumour in the sternum three tumours in her right lung and a biopsy confirmed that Brenda's cancer was terminal.

"I had to go home and tell my parents and my brother and my son. It was horrific. I couldn't tell my son for about two days and it was the hardest thing that I ever had to tell anybody in my life," she said.

"It's been so hard on him. He was born with a very serious heart condition and had open heart surgery when he was eleven months old, he has been through so much in his life and then at 21 to be told that your mum is dying from cancer. It is just not the way that things are meant to be."

"It's far reaching, it just doesn't affect me, it affects everybody.

"Cancer takes more than just your health from you, it takes everything from you.

"I'm very strong and I have to be for my son, I don't have many friends but the friends I have are truly amazing and I couldn't have got through this past year without them and my family. "

To donate search "Bucket List" on www.gofundme.com