North Somerset mum on how she's 'thriving' despite terminal cancer diagnosis six years ago

• Watch Heidi Loughlin speak to ITV News

A North Somerset mum with terminal cancer has celebrated seeing another Christmas, after being told by doctors she wouldn't live past Christmas of 2015.

Heidi Loughlin from Portishead was given between two and five years to live after being diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, but against the odds, she has survived and says she's not only living but "thriving".

Heidi told ITV News: "I feel so lucky to be here, not just to be here but I'm absolutely thriving with a stage 4 diagnosis.

"I'm just so happy that every year I get to unwrap the Christmas decorations and put them out for another year.

"Every time I pack them away I used to think - 'I might not see these again next year' - but that's old hat for me now.

"I'm here for another year and I'll be here for many many many more."

The Portishead mum had her most recent surgery on Monday, and said the NHS is the reason she's here today - and it's "impossible to measure how incredible" the NHS has been.

When she was first diagnosed in 2015, she was pregnant with her daughter Ally, and delayed treatment to give her baby the best chance of survival. But sadly, Ally died just days after being born.

In 2019, Heidi wrote a book dedicated to her two sons detailing her battle with cancer in a hope to show them how she was if she dies.

Heidi will be 40 this year, an age she says many people dread, but for her it's a milestone she can't believe she's turning.

"It is a milestone nobody expected that I would make, and I will fly past it at 100 miles an hour. When I hit 50 and then 60, I'll be sat there with the smuggest look on my face.

"That's how I live my life now, not like 'what if it's this year, - it will definitely be at least ten years, and in that time, I'm going to have the most amazing life.