WHEN Karen Rizzello signed up to do an Open University course she hoped that it would mean a brighter future.

What the 50-year-old marketing manager did not know was that her life was about to be turned upside down.

In November 2001, just as she was about to embark on a Masters in Business Administration, Karen was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Suddenly the Wootton Bassett woman was faced with the biggest challenge of her life surviving.

But Karen was determined not to let cancer get in the way and earlier this month, at a ceremony in Cheltenham, she graduated with her MBA.

In November she will go back to hospital for tests which she hopes, five years on, will show that she is clear of the disease.

Karen, of Vastern Wharf, said: "It took me a long time to decide to do the MBA because it was a long-term commitment.

"Then when I was diagnosed with breast cancer I wasn't sure what to do but I decided to carry on.

"I just felt I needed something to keep me going and take my mind off it.

"I needed to do something that wasn't thinking about the fact I could die."

For Karen, who lives with her husband Peter, 53, cancer was something she could not have gone through without the support of those around her.

She said: "It's a complete shock when you get told you have cancer.

"I was only 45 and you can't believe it when it happens.

"There is the thought that you could die and you don't expect to die at 45 of breast cancer. Mentally you have got to get into fighting mode and think about surviving.

"I think it's very important to be positive but it's very hard.

"Until you have had had to face that it's not something you can prepare for.

"My family and friends were wonderfully supportive and my company gave me a lot of support too and you need that when you're going through what I did."

With her graduation and impending medical tests, 2006 has been a big year for Karen.

"It's a nice year because I'm celebrating graduating and I'm looking forward to November when I will be all right," she said.

"It's a celebration of all my major stuff and I'm looking forward to the future."

For Karen the events of the last five years have given her a new outlook on life.

"When something like this happens, when you get a life-threatening illness, it makes you think about life and you only live once so you should do the things you really enjoy and take a few risks," she said.

"It's encouraged me to think differently about a lot of things and to take chances. It's made me think and make different choices than I would have if I had just sailed along.

"It's made me think you should go ahead, take the risk and do something different.

"You should follow your dreams."