PROUD mum Vicki Colkett has been chosen to lead the charge against cancer at Glasgow’s Pretty Muddy event on September 19.

The 47-year-old from Glasgow, who has just completed treatment for a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, will be the VIP for the all woman mud splattered 5k obstacle course.

Vicki will take to the stage to sound the horn and send thousands of women of all shapes and sizes on their way.

They will climb and crawl across 10 obstacles including a mud slide and scramble nets.

Now Vicki is urging other Scots to join her and fight dirty to help beat cancer sooner.

And she only has to hug her son Louis, 7, to know how vital the life-saving research is.

Vicki said: “I’ll feel proud to stand up on stage on behalf of all the women across Scotland who have been through cancer as more research will mean more lives saved.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer the first thing I thought about was my son. That’s what triggered all the tears and as I waved my son Louis in to school on his first day back last August I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

“I was just wondering, am I going to be here to do this in the future? Am I going to see my son grow up?”

It has been a tough 14 months since Vicki first found a lump in her right breast and a swelling under her arm.

After a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy at Victoria Hospital, she was told in August last year that she had triple negative breast cancer - a particularly fast-growing and harder-to-treat form of the disease.

Side effects meant she lost her hair during six lots of chemotherapy which finished on Christmas Eve.

She said: “Just before I started treatment I sat down with my son and explained that I had a lump in my breast called cancer and I was going to have to have some strong medicine to make it better.

“I’m really proud of the way Louis has coped with it all and I got through it thanks to amazing support from my partner Paul McGlinchey, friends, family and Louis’ school.”

In January this year, Vicki endured surgery to have the lump removed.

The tumour, which had at first measured more than three cm, was only three mm when it was removed.

Vicki successfully completed her treatment in April after 19 sessions of radiotherapy.

She is now looking to the future. Vicki said: “This year it felt so different taking Louis to school on the first day back after the holidays.

“I felt just like all the other mums at the school gates. I’m well and the future looks good.

“What a difference a year makes.”

But it was heartbreaking the same month when her mum, Jane Colkett, 70, of Edinburgh, was told by doctors that she had lung cancer for the second time.

Vicki recruited a team of friends called Vick’s Chicks who raised more than £3,000 for Cancer Research UK when they joined more than 10,000 women at the Race for Life in Glasgow in May.

Now Vicki is proud to play her part in Race for Life Pretty Muddy in Glasgow this September.

She said: “I’m backing Race for Life Pretty Muddy for my Mum and me.

“My Mum has been a great support to me through cancer and much braver than me. She’s still enjoying life which is so important and her positive attitude is infectious.”

To enter Race for Life Pretty Muddy today go to www.raceforlife.org or call 0300 123 0770.