SIX weeks before she died, Julie Buckley was running along a beach in Australia's Gold Coast.

After being told her cancer was terminal, the 43-year-old marketing manager from Glasgow travelled to Australia and New Zealand on her own, determined to pack as many positive experiences as possible into the weeks she had left.

She kept a diary of her trip, detailing the joy of scuba diving and swimming with dolphins.

It was many months before her sister Su could bring herself to read it, but it now gives her comfort.

The 39-year-old said: "Julie was determined to live her shortened life to the full, never dwelling on the negative and embracing the positive.

"While she was under­going chemotherapy she gained a second degree in business administration, passing with distinction.

"The year after her death I read the diary entries on the same days she would have been having all those experiences.

"As hard as I found it to read the extracts - it felt like an intrusion at first - it was lovely to think she made the most of the time. She was really ill, sometimes walking was a struggle, but she never let it stop her."

Originally from Warring­ton, Cheshire, Julie adopted Glasgow as her home and had lived in the city for a number of years.

She worked at Strathclyde University as a marketing manager for many years before she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2009. She had a hysterectomy and chemotherapy, which managed to shrink the tumour. But a year later the cancer returned, more aggresively, and doctors told her family it was terminal.

Su said: "It's hard enough to deal with that, but when you are a couple of hundred miles away from a loved one …

"It was hard not to smother her, but she was very independent.

"My mum and dad and I would take turns to go up. We were told we would have to make the most of the time we had left."

Plans had to change quickly as Julie's health deteriorated faster than had been anticipated and the services of the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow were offered to Julie and our family.

She died, peacefully, on April 30, 2011, with her sister and parents Joan and Pete by her side.

Two years on, Su said she was still struggling to cope with her loss. "I feel lonely without her. Life will never be the same again.

"I cannot begin to thank the hospice people for all they did in those final few days.

"They treated Julie with a respect, love and care that I thought possible only from her family. And that care and love was extended to us, her family and her close friends who visited.

"Nothing was too much trouble and for a family trying to cope with the devastating situation in an unfamiliar city far from home, I cannot begin to tell you how grateful we all were to the team."

Su is also full of praise for the Maggie's Centre in Glasgow, which supported her through her illness.

Earlier this year Su and a group of close friends cycled just under 200 miles from Warrington to Glasgow as a thank you to the hospice and so far they have raised more than £5000.

caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk