conditions on the Scottish hills right now are apparently such that the only potential problem may be too much snow, so it should not seem remarkable that the chief executive of Snowsport Scotland hopes to get out on to the piste this weekend.

As well as the day-to-day responsibilities of running a governing body, you see, Jane Campbell Morrison is also battling cancer and what makes that all the more extraordinary is that she took on her current post while already deep in the throes of her illness.

"I'm what I suppose you would describe as a cancer survivor," said the former ski instructor, adding emphatically that she does not consider herself a victim since she believes what she is going through has contributed hugely to who she is.

"I suppose most people would have wanted to take a bit of time out, but that isn't my style and I have wanted to get back into snowsports for such a long time. I really enjoyed working for the RYA [Royal Yachting Association] in Scotland which is where I was for 16½ years and then this job came up and I felt it would be stupid not to at least try because I had also wanted to get up into a CEO position in Scottish sport.

"Many cancer survivors will have a different perspective on it but, for me, it was a kind of galvanising of action. You've talked about getting back into snowsports, you've talked about getting a CEO position, so why don't you just do it?"

Should she make it on to the slopes this weekend it will be another milestone. "I'll try to get up there," she said. "Physically I can't do a lot. It takes a long time to recover and, bone-wise, I'm still a bit fragile so I have to be a bit wary because any sort of accident, even just slipping beside the car or something silly like that and I would have a potential problem. It's really only in the last month or so I've been starting to improve."

In many ways, though, the mindset that has forced upon her fits well with the philosophy with which she approaches the job she started last summer. "My hope is that I can help make the sport better, but you need to bring people with you. There's a lot of work to do around building and strengthening relationships with our members, around raising the profile of Snowsport Scotland, around the industry as a whole in Scotland, but you just have to do these things in baby steps, trying to bring people with you as you go."

Her demeanour is that of someone who genuinely appreciates the need to seize the day, which should serve her sport well as she pursues, baby step by baby step, an ambitious goal. "One of our major targets is for snowsports to become the winter activity of choice for the majority of the population in Scotland. That's something we are all pretty passionate about," she said of her team. Yet there is sound reasoning behind her thinking that one discipline in particular offers them a competitive advantage in 21st century Scotland.

"You can see from freestyle, which most people's eyes are drawn to, that from the jumps and the kickers and all the tricks that people are pulling, it's just like a skateboard park, or things like surfing . . . the whole Red Bull culture lends itself to freestyle," Campbell Morrison explained.

"So it's much more achievable than you think. We feel we have a level playing field in terms of developing freestyle and developing athletes in freestyle in skiing and in snowboarding, because we have dry slopes and the kids are pulling tricks on the dry slopes that nobody could have predicted.

"On top of that, there is a culture of self and group improvement where they chat about how things are done to work out how to make improvements which is different to Alpine which is very much a structured, coach-led environment."

She notes, though, that there is a balancing act to be done between spending on the elite end of the sport with its potential to draw profile - not least when Scottish skiing's new star Andrew Musgrave makes his medal bid at the forthcoming Winter Olympics - and that on encouraging mass participation.

A pilot scheme in Stirling schools will, she hopes, be followed by a nationwide roll-out offering opportunities for youngsters of all backgrounds to sample snowsports. Claiming that the elitist image of snowsport is out-dated, she notes with a laugh that there is no hyphen in her name which, in any case, was adopted on marriage.

Such good humour serves Campbell Morrison well as she confronts the challenges before her and reinforces the over-riding impression that dealing with them has in turn contributed to a zest for life that can only benefit Scottish snowsport.