Pat Mitchell

battle against the illness.

Mrs Mitchell, of Tulliallan, co-founded the Road to Recovery breast cancer self-help group after she was first treated for the illness in 1985. At the time there was no other counselling service for breast cancer sufferers in Fife and Mrs Mitchell's pioneering work has been credited with paving the way for the professional counselling that is now in place.

From the late 1980s Mrs Mitchell counselled hundreds of women suffering from breast

cancer. Road to Recovery was set up at the West Fife District

General Hospital in Dunfermline where Mrs Mitchell toured the wards giving compassionate support and advice.

When the Fife District General Hospital was replaced by the Queen Margaret Hospital in 1993, Mrs Mitchell continued to provide back-up support to the doctors and nurses even after the specialist Breast Care Unit was set up. She travelled all over Fife to talk to sufferers when they were in need, often putting the well-being of others before her own health.

Mrs Mitchell and co-founder Andreen Walker had made a name for themselves in Fife

and even after the women wound up the counselling group due to ill-health people still went to them for help. The women also set up a counselling service for the families and partners of breast cancer sufferers, helped by their husbands.

Norma Larry, a sister in one of the wards at the Queen Margaret Hospital where the two women did their rounds, believes that if it had not been for their hard work there would not be the high standard of professional and voluntary counselling that is in the hospital today.

At the age of 71, Mrs Walker, from Pitcorthie, who still drives, is still called upon to visit sufferers who want some friendly advice from someone who has experienced what they are going through.

Mrs Walker had a mastectomy 11 years ago and now considers herself to be one of the lucky ones who successfully fought the illness.

Her dear and close friend, Mrs Mitchell, was not so lucky. Since being diagnosed as having breast cancer in 1985 the mother-of-four endured two mastectomies and finally lost the fight when the

cancer spread to her lungs.

Mrs Walker said: ''Right up to the last I thought she was always caring for someone else before herself. She was a very brave lady. We worked very closely together and we formed a very close friendship. I am going to miss her very much.''

Throughout her struggle Mrs Mitchell's husband, Jack, was never far from her side. He helped her set up Road to Recovery and played a major part in the sister group for the husbands and partners of women with breast cancer.

The couple were married for more than 36 years and had four children. They also were foster parents for children from Fife and the Lothians, and both served as commanding officers in the Salvation Army's Lochgelly Corps.

Born in Plymouth, Mrs Mitchell came to Fife when she was only a year old, when her father was transferred from Devonport dockyard to Rosyth. She went to primary and secondary schools in Rosyth and worked for a local bakery firm until she met her husband.

Mr Mitchell said: ''It was a long illness. Pat is probably the bravest person I have ever met. I have known a lot of war heroes but to continually battle on and to continually try to help folk when you are not too well yourself is quite exceptional.''

Sarah-Kate Templeton