"Your story isn't over just because there was a bad chapter. Keep reading."

That was the apt message brave Barrhead mum Lesley Graham shared on Facebook after a scan showed the cancerous tumours she has been battling since the start of the year have shrunk.

The mother-of-two was told she had just months left to live back in April and that there was little doctors could do to cure the cancer that had spread from her breasts to her brain, liver and ribs.

However, following the diagnosis, 39-year-old Lesley led a relentless campaign in pursuit of a £15,000-per-bout wonder drug that could extend her life.

The remarkable determination she displayed in the face of such adversity granted her access to six rounds of the Kadcyla drug – that has also stopped the cancer in her ribs from growing – which enabled Lesley to live beyond the original diagnosis.

It has given Lesley the chance to look ahead to the foreseeable future at least with husband Colin, 47, and daughters Rebekah, 12, and 14-year-old Charlotte.

After learning of the positive results on October 4, Lesley told The News: "I feel like I can breathe. I'm thankful I woke up this morning.

"I'm thankful that I'll see Halloween – I'm just thankful that I'm still here.

"Yesterday I was a nervous wreck but I'm on top of the world.

"I feel like I can breathe and just get on with things for a wee while. It's a total and utter relief for what is a nightmare situation but it's going in the right direction.

"Who knows what could come out of this? It could be miraculous."

Lesley has already undergone a seventh bout of treatment since receiving her scan results last week as part of another three-weekly cycle.

The toll the illness has taken on her family is not lost on her, nor is the fact much of the long-term future remains unclear.

Lesley said: "I'm living my life in a nine-week spell because I don't know what's going to happen after the scan results because I don't know what it's going to show.

"You start thinking: 'What if I need to start a big fight again?'

"Everybody feels it. We all feel it. We're a big family, there's 18 of us on my side of the family.

"We all love each other so much. We end a conversation with 'I love you'.

"I know that they're all waiting for me to come back and tell them what I've been told."

While Lesley is enormously grateful for all the support she has received throughout her fight, she admits the lengths she had to go to in order to have access to treatment – to which she was initially refused access – left her disheartened and disillusioned.

"It's just a great community to live in here," she said.

"The kindness of people is incredible. I have people who don't even know me sending me flowers and going to chapel and praying for me.

"I still want to meet the people that said no (to her initial request for the Kadcyla drug).

"I want to know who they are and I want to know what gave them the right to make that decision about me.

"I'm intrigued to find out what their opinion is now.

"Do they still think they were right to say no? It would be really interesting to hear what they had to say."

Lesley added: "I think to run a country, or to be in charge of its health, you must have a human side about you.

"Scotland is not a huge country but it seems to be run with a slight degree of inhumanity.

"I try and not dwell on it too much but if I had accepted what I was told, where would my family be and where would I be?

"I hope that anyone getting news like I was given, that my story has struck a chord. If somebody is telling you that nothing else can be done, you need to question it."

Friends of Lesley's have created a fundraising page to enable her and her family to make special memories together.

The GoFundMe account has raised over £32,000 and is accessible by visiting gofundme.com/makingmemories38