It's good to talk, they say, but what do you do when something so bad happens you feel you cannot tell the people closest to you what is going through your mind?

That was the dilemma facing Cherry Robinson who was diagnosed with breast cancer exactly 10 years ago this month.

She struggled to confide in family and friends - not because they did not support her - but because she feared their sympathy might overwhelm her.

Mrs Robinson agreed to tell her story to your Worcester News to encourage women to speak up and be more aware of the disease.

She said: "At first you don't talk about it because it's such a shock.

"And as much as your family help you and love you I wouldn't always tell them how I felt because I knew they would worry.

"I've always been Mum' and the strong one in the family."

Mrs Robinson, a retired physiotherapy assistant, said she also initially kept her illness under wraps at work.

She said: "I worked at the hospital and when I went to see the nurses I crept up the corridor because I didn't want anybody to see me.

"I didn't want anybody to know because I couldn't cope with the sympathy. I would have broken down. Eventually, though, people did know and were very supportive."

Her feelings have since changed and she now chairs the Worcester breast cancer group's meetings.

She said: "I think it makes you feel better in the end.

"I went to the breast support group and I found there were other people like me and I thought, I'm not the only one.' "I've met a lot of friends through it and we have a lots of laughs.

"It altered my life totally realising there were other people - such positive people - about.

"When you are first told, it's like a death sentence. You think the worst. I think talking about it helped."

October is breast cancer awareness month and Mrs Robinson, of Osier Close, Worcester, agreed to talk about her experience to help launch Cancer Research UK's All Join Together awareness campaign.

The charity wants women to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer by exercising, eating fruit and veg, cutting down on alcohol, and maintaining a healthy weight.

Mrs Robinson first began to feel run down in 1997 when she was 53.

She had been due for a routine mammogram in March but missed it because she was nursing her dying father.

Her GP encouraged her to rearrange it but Mrs Robinson was reluctant, telling her doctor she would wait three years for her next routine appointment.

Fortunately, she changed her mind and, following the mammogram, a biopsy in October revealed breast cancer.

"If I had left it three years, doctors said I wouldn't be here," said Mrs Robinson. "Mammograms are an important thing."

In November, she underwent a mastectomy, an experience she described as extremely hard, and eighteen months later a breast reconstruction.

In the end, she spent seven years taking different drugs to combat the disease before completing her treatment three years ago.

Mrs Robinson, now 63, said the disease had given her a totally different outlook on life, prompting her to retire in 1998 so she could enjoy herself.

She said: "Your world rips apart for a little while but I'm here to tell the story.

"I've had good times and bad times but I've got through it.

"I decided I was going to enjoy life and I've carried on doing that.

"I've told my children I'm going to live until I'm 100 and annoy them."

However, she urged people to be conscious of the dangers of a disease that affects one in nine women.

"I think women should be very aware of it and every month examine themselves," she said.

"Any slight hint they are worried about anything, go straight to the GP - that's why they are there."