A MOTHER given just months to live when she was diagnosed with cancer three years ago says surviving to see this Christmas is the 'greatest gift.'

Debbie Brewer, 50, was told she had the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma in November 2006, and had between six and nine months of life left.

The Eggbuckland mum of three said an amazing pioneering treatment she received in Germany had given her more time with her family.

"I didn't think I'd live to see this Christmas," she said.

"I didn't think I'd live to see my 50th birthday, or my son go to big school.

"When you're given a diagnosis like that, you can't see the future any more. All the things you look forward to, like your children growing up, just disappear. It's a blank space, like it's shut away behind a door.

"The treatment has brought my life back. It's the greatest gift that any human being could give to another."

Debbie is spending the festive season at home with her children Kieran, 13, pictured left, Richard, 20, and Siobhan, 23.

She said: "Christmas is the time of year I celebrate being here. Every year I try to make it as special as possible."

Debbie is the daughter of Phillip Northmore, an asbestos lagger at Devonport Dockyard in the 1960s. She received a six-figure compensation payout from the Ministry of Defence after presenting evidence that the illness could only have been caused by hugging her father when he returned from work at the yard in overalls contaminated with asbestos fibres.

Debbie has used some of the money to pay for the specialised chemotherapy, which cost more than £20,000.

Earlier this year she received the news that the lung cancer had reduced by 83 per cent. She is campaigning for the treatment to be brought to the UK and for increased awareness of the dangers of asbestos.

She said: "Without the compensation payment I don't think I would have been able to get the treatment. That's why it needs to be brought here.

"There are going to be a lot more people diagnosed with this disease. Why should they have to pay for it themselves?

"They have been given this disease by an industry and the industry should be helping them with their quality of life, giving them something back."

Plymouth is a hotspot for asbestos-related deaths, many of them among former Devonport workers.

A check-up in September showed that, while Debbie's lung cancer had remained stable, the cancer in her lymph node had increased in size.

She recently completed a three-week course of radiotherapy in Plymouth and will learn in February whether this treatment has been successful.

She also praised a complementary therapy using mistletoe extract, which she injects twice a week and she said helped boost her immune system.

Debbie said she would continue to campaign to bring the private chemotherapy treatment, known as chemoembolisation, to the UK.

Carried out by Professor Thomas Vogl at the University Clinic in Frankfurt, it introduces chemotherapy drugs directly to the tumour area through a catheter into the lung.

The technique of chemoembolisation is more commonly used to fight liver cancer.

Debbie has attracted more than 1,500 signatures for a petition launched on the Downing Street website calling for the treatment to be more widely available.