JANE Tomlinson is the ultimate cancer survivor.

She was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in 2000. It spread to her bones, affecting her spine and pelvis, and the hip, leg, and shoulder on the left side of her body. As a result of drug treatments, she also developed chronic heart disease. But at the start of this month, her athletic prowess captured the hearts and minds of Britain again after she finished a gruelling nine-week, 3700-mile fundraising Ride Across America.

Six years after being told she had just six months left to live, the mother-of-three, who had been seriously ill since leaving San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in July, rode into New York's Battery Park and the arms of her husband, Mike, 45, and son, Steven, nine.

After a journey that she was almost too sick to begin and had said she wished she never embarked upon, Mrs Tomlinson said: "I'm just delighted to be here. It's a huge relief."

The exhausting ride to raise money for cancer charities is thought to be the greatest endurance feat completed by someone dying of the disease. As well as battling her body, Tomlinson faced repeated attacks by dogs, strong winds and temperatures of more than 120F.

Just two days before riding into the Big Apple, her supporters considered calling off the rest of the ride as the 42year-old's condition worsened and it looked like she would have to be taken to hospital.

Mr Tomlinson said his wife had insisted on battling on despite the challenge "lurching from one crisis to another" and several days when she could barely even walk or stand.

"But I knew the minute she started that it would take a huge injury to stop her doing this. It wasn't going to come from her feeling sick from the cancer."