Four years ago, Claire Davis was told she had just a few months left to live.

Suffering from blood disease and liver failure, the 31-year-old was also trying to get her beauty business off the ground and look after her family.

It was then that she took the brave decision to take herself off all medication and within two months she started to feel better. Since then, the transformation of her life has been remarkable.

With a loan and mentor from The Princes Trust in 2006 her business has boomed and now Ladies Touch, based at Henwood in Ashford, has a client base of 1,400 and is a well-established beauty therapy and training centre.

She even gets the odd celebrity client and recently spray tanned Paris Hilton.

Claire, of Godinton Park, Ashford, has now been shortlisted as a finalist for a Prince's Trust award celebrating business success.

The ceremony takes place in Berkshire on Wednesday, when Claire in the final three for the Federation of Small Business Enterprise award.

She said: “I still have to go to hospital twice a week to have my blood checked, but business is booming.

“I work as many hours as I can squeeze in, but I know if I hadn’t kept going, I probably would not be here today.

“Seeing other people in hospital giving up, made me realise that where there’s a will there’s a way.”