It takes a very special person to be told, at the age of just 28, that they have a very aggressive form of breast cancer and then come out fighting.

But that’s exactly what Cara Qualtrough did.

Cara had found a lump in her right breast in February last year, on the eve of a party to celebrate her engagement to her boyfriend, Ben.

Three months later, following investigations, doctors gave her the very worst news:

’I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer which is a rare form, really aggressive and very fast-growing.’

She was told that the tumour was already 4cm in size and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.

Doctors laid out the treatment plan they had drawn up for her: six months of chemotherapy treatment, followed by surgery to remove the breast and lymph nodes on her right side and then a course of radiotherapy.

They warned her that it was by no means certain that all the treatment would be completed before her planned wedding in March this year.

What was certain was that she was going to lose her long brunette locks.

It would have been only too easy to have given up at this point but Cara, with Ben’s unswerving support, took the news as a challenge.

As he says now: ’Our wedding date was a nice target to work towards.’

The following months took every bit of determination and character for both of them.

Ben recalls: ’They said to us the first day she got diagnosed: "It’s going to be like a rollercoaster" and that is so true because you get some good news, then you get two pieces of bad news and everything seems so worrying and scary.’

’It’s hard to stay hopeful - it’s so easy to give up hope,’ adds Cara.

When she first started her chemo, Cara tried wearing a ’cold cap’ during treatment which has prevented hair loss in some patients.

It was, she soon discovered, excruciatingly unpleasant: ’It literally freezes your head. I was trying to ignore the pain just to keep some hair.’

Having put up with it for the first two sessions, her hair was still coming out in handfuls and, by July 31 last year, Cara realised that she was nearly bald.

The following day she went and had what was left of her hair shaved at the hairdressers: ’Once it had gone I thought "Now it can only get longer",’ she says.

Cara’s immediate goal was to finish her chemo and have her surgery before Christmas. Despite a few setbacks, she responded well to the treatment and was able to drop her last session and finish in time.

Cara recalls: ’I had the best outcome to the chemo "complete pathological response" and no cancer cells found in the whole area.’

Ben has proved invaluable, documenting every step of her treatment. He reckons he has 400 notes on his phone of meetings with doctors and pathologists.

’If I’d been on my own I don’t know how I’d have got through it,’ says Cara.

However, chemo had brought with it another problem that neither of them had foreseen.

From being a very fit young woman who loved walking holidays in the Lakes and had made it as far as Ramsey on the Parish Walk, Cara had put on two stone. When she went in January to try on the dress she had ordered, she couldn’t get into it. ’I will make it fit!’ she vowed.

Joanne Crellin, at Elite Gym in Spring Valley, put Cara on a training regime when she finished her radiotherapy.

Cara says she really made her work: ’She wanted me in the gym every day and she had zero sympathy for me: she didn’t go easy but it really worked. She refused to take any money for it - she just so wanted to help.’

There is also a hairdresser at the gym, Keelin Regan, who specialises in hair extensions and Cara decided to ask her if she could help with the lack of hair on her wedding day.

As it turns out, Keelin had just been trained in the use of meshes, an innovative way to treat thinning hair and pattern baldness and she thought it could work for Cara. There was just one problem: it was very expensive.

Cara approached Isle of Man Breast Care to ask if they would help: ’I messaged them and they said: "We’d love to give you your hair back for your wedding day". There was no thinking about it just straight away that they would cover it.

’Sharon Maddrell was so helpful: it just felt like a very personal charity.’

Two weeks before her wedding day Cara found herself sitting in a chair at Keelin’s salon whilst she applied meshes to what was left of her hair.

Cara recalls: ’She’d been working away and it looked ridiculous as you’re getting it done.’ Then came the moment she finally looked in the mirror and saw her new hair: ’That was so good - wow! I couldn’t stop touching it, playing with it, styling it , brushing it. Even now when I get up and look in the mirror it just looks normal.’ Ben describes the moment he first saw her on their wedding day. I didn’t realise it was you when I first saw you - I thought it was one of your sisters - I’d forgotten that you looked like that!’

For both of them there was so much to celebrate on that day, not just the weight loss and the new hair but more importantly the fact that Cara had finished her treatment and things are now looking good for the future. She still has to go for regular physiotherapy on her right arm following the lymph node removal and she has closen to undergo surgery to remove her left breast which will lower the risk of the disease returning but at least they can start to plan again and they are looking forward to going on a delayed honeymoon in July.

Cara’s own hair is now starting to grow again and she reckons that, in about 18 months, she might have a bob. But she will always be grateful for being given the gift of hair for her wedding day. As she says: ’I didn’t want to look back on that day and just remember being ill.’

Sharon Maddrell of Isle of Man Breast Care says: ’Cara is a very brave young woman, and when we first met, she was undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy.

Her wedding date was looming, and of course she wanted, and deserved, to look her very best.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for her to keep her spirits up, so I was delighted we could help her. She was so excited when her hair was finished and when she sent me some photos, I have to say, it was an emotional moment. She looked so happy!’

None of us enjoys having a bad hair day so how would we feel if we knew our crowning glory was going to be less than glorious on our wedding day? Cara Qualtrough, who lost her hair following chemotherapy treatment, tells Julie Blackburn about her innovative solution.

Keelin Reegan has been doing hair extensions for over 13 years. She one of the most experienced hairdressers in this skill on the island and is rated number one in the north west on the Great Extensions website. More recently, she trained in the UK in the use of hair meshes and here she explains how they are applied and how they work:

’The mesh is made of a breathable, fine soft fabric and it’s custom made to fit each client’s head. It’s discreetly secured by small plastic links to their own hair, then wefts of premium quality hair are sewn into the mesh. Then the top piece - what we call a closure or a volumiser - is added.

’Once finished, you can wear you parting any way you like; it can’t be blown off and you can go swimming and go to the gym.’

’The whole process takes about four or five hours and prices for meshes start from £300.’

Keelin adds: ’It’s just lovely to see the transformation at the end and I love to do it.’