ANGELA Kelly talks to a local woman who is just recovering from cancer, about her illness and just why she is supporting her work colleagues in this event.

MAUREEN Cowcill can go almost anywhere and someone will know her -- in Bolton town centre, on holiday abroad, in the airport.

The reason is simple: she has worked on the customer service desk in Tesco's Horwich store for nearly 15 years, dealing with thousands of people.

And her bubbly personality, infectious laugh and genuine interest in people make her memorable.

"People look at me and think they know me just because they've seen me in the store. And it happens in all sorts of odd places, like in the airport or on a beach."

It is something that Maureen has always taken for granted. But, lately, she has come to realise that just talking to people has become important to her. It has become a lifesaver.

Maureen took her part-time job with the store only a couple of miles from her Ladybridge home as her family was growing up.

She is married to Nigel, a retired power station engineer, and the couple have four children. Jane is 37, Darren, 35, works for Tesco at Horwich on CCTV cameras, Victoria, 31 has a job with Tesco at Wigan and 24 year-old Ben has just joined the police force.

The couple had an early brush with serious illness 20 years ago, when Nigel had testicular cancer. "The children were still young, and I suppose I did think that I would be left on my own with four youngsters," recalls Maureen.

"It was a bad time, but we got through it. Nigel had treatment at Christie's, and I never thought all the times we went there that I would be doing that myself one day."

Maureen's own problems began last summer when, just back from holiday, she felt a nagging ache in her left breast, beneath her armpit.

She went to Beaumont Hospital and the consultant there quickly realised that it was not an innocent cyst.

"He told me I needed a biopsy. I was absolutely terrified. I just thought 'I'm going to die,'" states Maureen now.

Within a couple of weeks, Maureen found herself at the Breast Unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital for a biopsy. "I couldn't believe the number of women waiting for treatment. It was standing room only," she says.

But the biopsy showed that Maureen had breast cancer. She needed to have a lumpectomy, the removal of a small area of breast.

The consultant removed about a quarter of Maureen's left breast, and also took some lymph nodes for examination, one later proved cancerous.

She was in hospital for five days, and returned home feeling ill and depressed. But, she was alive, and the prognosis was good.

Regular visits to Christie's Hospital for radiotherapy followed, and Maureen was put on the drug Tamoxifen. The district nurse came to check Maureen's by now healing wound, although her left arm was still store and painful.

"But I still felt very down, inside," she adds. "I tried to keep bright and positive for everyone, but I was very depressed."

Friends from Tesco visited, and she had large numbers of "Get Well Soon" cards from them and from some of the many customers who know her so well.

"This all helped me to feel better, but it was very gradual."

Normally a lively person, Maureen found being at home -- even just relaxing or doing a spot of weeding in the lovely garden at her home -- was just not enough.

And a fortnight ago, nine months after Maureen had left her job, she returned to the store.

"Surprisingly, it is just talking to other people that has been the key," she says.

"I met one lady in the store and we got chatting and I told her why I'd not been there. She said 'I had breast cancer 30 years ago.' She's in her seventies now and looks great, and just knowing that she had survived, had beaten it, helped me."

She has started swimming again at the David Lloyd Centre, and was even prepared to take part -- "walking only, of course -- I'm not up to running yet!" -- in the Race for Life in June.

And what advice would Maureen give to other women who may have reason to fear breast cancer?

"Just talk out your fears," she says, giving her warm, open smile. "Share your feelings with other people. Talking really is good for you -- and I can honestly say it's one of the things I do really well!"