Bristol woman Carole Budding had five brain tumours and was sent home from hospital to die.

But a year on Mrs Budding, from Horfield, is still alive after making an amazing recovery.

Doctors in the oncology unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary had told her there was no further treatment they could give her for five cancerous tumours in her brain.

A room was completely cleared at her home and a hospital bed with hoists was brought in. Mrs Budding even went as far as planning her own funeral.

But a recent scan has shown four of the malignant tumours have disappeared, while the remaining fifth is the size of a pinprick.

The only visible signs that she has been unwell are bald patches on her head, from where radiotherapy destroyed some hair follicles, and slight difficulties in walking.

Mrs Budding, 47, and her husband Ray believe her recovery could even be described as a miracle.

She said: "They told Ray I only had six to eight weeks left to live. All treatment was withdrawn, including physiotherapy, and all I was given was pain relief."

Mr Budding, 63, said: "They said she could either go into a hospice or I could have her home. She wasn't going anywhere but here, no way.

"I had 48 hours to get this room ready. That's not much time when you've got to get everything out.

"We'd only had these settees for a few months from DFS at Cribbs Causeway. I rang up and told the bloke Carole was terminally ill, and they were brilliant. They came here, took the settees apart, stored them, and never charged a penny."

Mrs Budding began planning her own funeral. "I was going to be buried in a wicker casket, that would be carried in a horse and cart.

"I even chose two readings. I was going to have my friend Sue reading the Jenny Joseph poem Warning – When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple. It just tickled me, that.

"For the other reading I was going to have the poem that begins 'Do not stand at my grave and weep'."

So what happened?

The obvious medical explanation would be that the 10 sessions of radiotherapy which Mrs Budding underwent over a 10-day period in January 2008 managed to destroy the tumours, even though they were still present when she was discharged.

However, Mr and Mrs Budding believe there may have been other forces at work.

They never gave up hope and continued to battle on determinedly despite the gloomy diagnosis. But they give a share of the credit to a mysterious stranger who gave Mr Budding two religious medals. Neither Mr nor Mrs Budding are churchgoers, but they both believe this may have played a part in her recovery.

"I've never been into religious beliefs. But I believe in what happened to me," Mrs Budding said.

She developed brain tumours after surviving breast cancer, which was discovered in her left breast in December 2004 and required surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

At that time, she was manager of the Co-op in Horfield, but reduced her hours to work as a cash officer because of her illness, and later became area trainer for Co-op stores in the South West.

By 2007, life seemed to have returned to normal for the couple, and their two sons, Scott and Shane, aged 24 and 22.

But then on December 12, Mrs Budding had a fit and collapsed. She was rushed to Frenchay Hospital with what was believed to be a stroke – until scans were taken which revealed that she had five brain tumours.

"My nightmare was back," she said.

Mrs Budding was admitted to Ward 23, and in the early hours of the morning her husband stepped outside for some fresh air.

"It was pitch black, and I became aware of somebody behind me," he recalls. "This man approached me. He said, 'It's OK, I know about Carole's problems'.

"Then he started telling me about a young girl who had brain tumours many years ago, but survived to be an old women because she had a saint medal.

"He gave me two charms, one for me and one for Carole, and said: 'Accept this and carry it always, and Carole will recover'. I've never seen the chap from that day to this, but I still have the charm and I keep it in my wallet."

The medal is similar to those worn by many Catholics around the world, in remembrance of when the Virgin Mary appeared to St Catherine Laboure in France in 1830. The medals are said to grant special graces when worn with devotion.

Mrs Budding has also kept her medal. "We're not religious, but when you're in the situation that we were in, you'd be stupid not to believe in anything that might help you," she said.

After a week, Mrs Budding left Frenchay hospital and embarked upon a course of 10 radiotherapy sessions in the oncology unit at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

The radiotherapy took place over Christmas and New Year, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. "Christmas was cancelled for us, full stop," Mr Budding said.

As the treatment progressed Mrs Budding had difficulty walking, and by the final session she had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

After the radiotherapy had finished, Mrs Budding was taken back to hospital because she was unable to stand up or move her arms, and there were fears that the cancer had spread to her spine.

"Ray was told he could either put me into St Peter's Hospice, or take me home. So I was sent home to die," she said.

"It was really strange lying in my living room in a hospital bed with four carers a day coming in.

"I said to Ray: 'I've got to get out of this bed or I'm going to die'. That's when we decided we'd start trying to help me to walk again."

Mr Budding recalled: "I gave it a bit of thought, and then put my arms around her and pulled her up.

"For weeks she put her arms around my shoulders and I walked backwards with her to the kitchen. Her feet just slid along the floor, for about two or three months, then one day she started putting her feet down.

"We didn't tell anyone what we were doing until we got to the point where Carole was strong enough to stand by herself."

Mrs Budding said: "I turned a corner when I started walking again. I'd been going to St Peter's Hospice at Brentry, and they started giving me physio.

"They were amazed that I was still there when I'd been given only weeks to live. They were saying they'd never known anything like it.

"After they'd taught me how to walk up the stairs again, I was able to move out of the sitting room to our bedroom. I'd been determined go back to my own bed."

Mr Budding added: "I rang DFS at Cribbs Causeway, and they came back with the sofas and put them back together again. All the ornaments that I'd packed away and put upstairs were brought back to the sitting room."

Mrs Budding's recovery was confirmed after her consultant at Bristol Royal Infirmary, Dr Jeremy Braybrooke arranged for her to have a scan.

"Four tumours had gone, and one left that was the size of a pinprick," Mrs Budding said.

She recently underwent a full body scan, which confirmed no other tumours had developed in her body, and she is now having three-monthly checks at the oncology department.

But although the sitting room now looks exactly as it did before Mrs Budding became ill, life is different in many ways.

"I get very tired, and I usually go to sleep in the afternoon," Mrs Budding said.

"One thing that hasn't come back is my body strength, and I'm having physio at Southmead. I can walk around the house, and up to the shops, but I can't walk around the Mall at Cribbs Causeway because I'm not strong enough."

As well as the physical legacy of Mrs Budding's illness, there is also an emotional one.

"I was thinking I was going to die in a few weeks, then suddenly I wasn't."

"I didn't know what was happening to me. I seemed to be getting better, but death was always there. That's been the most difficult thing to come to terms with.

"After a year of facing death I still have my shutters down. I'm scared to celebrate in case it comes back."

Mr Budding said: "Everything we did during that time was about Carole passing away. We'd made funeral plans, and then we were told to forget it."

How do they think she managed to survive against the odds?

Mr Budding said: "When this chap came up to me in the hospital with the religious medals, I'd never believed in anything like that. But in that sort of situation you have to try believing."

Mrs Budding added: "Perhaps it was a miracle."

Bristol Royal Infirmary does not provide comments on the medical conditions of individual patients. However, Dr Braybrooke, the consultant medical oncologist who has been in charge of Carole's treatment said: "Unfortunately, when a cancer spreads to the brain it can cause many symptoms including headaches, changes in vision and generalised weakness.

"When there are multiple lesions the best treatment is radiotherapy which can be very effective at shrinking the cancer.

"Normally the benefits of radiotherapy are seen within a few weeks but, if there is a good response, this can persist for some time.

"Whilst the average survival for patients with brain secondary tumours from a breast cancer is normally a few months, with recent improvements in treatment some patients can live for a number of years."