When three siblings won sweets at their school sports day they didn’t tuck into them like the rest of their classmates – they sold them to raise money for a cancer charity.

Twins Lana and Oakley, eight, and sister Anya, seven, made the generous gesture because their mum is battling a rare form of breast cancer, which would have been fatal if doctors hadn’t caught it in time.

Debbie Hughes is 48, and while women are not normally invited to NHS breast screenings until after their 50th birthdays, she was one of a handful of younger women offered an appointment as part of a trial.

The invitation proved to be life-saving and now Debbie, who is halfway through a course of chemotherapy and will start radiotherapy in October, is pleading with other women to go to their scans, even if they have no reason to believe they might have cancer.

The mum of three, who lives in Park Farm, Ashford, with husband Ian and the children, said: “I had no signs of cancer whatsoever, no lump or anything. But they found a soft-tissue tumour the size of a satsuma.

"The doctors didn’t know how long it had been growing but said if it had been left to grow for three and half years it would have been too late.

“That scan saved my life. I want to shout from the rooftops that people should go for their scans.

“I’ve had friends who’ve had letters and not gone because they’ve not had any lumps, but even after they told me my tumour was there I couldn’t feel it.”

Debbie has had her left breast and lymph nodes removed and has been told she needs to lose her right breast as well.

But throughout the upsetting experience she has been overwhelmed by the actions of her young children, pupils at Ashford's Furley Park Primary Academy, and members of the public.

She continued: “The kids have been amazing. They got out my little tables at the weekend and set up a sweet stall outside the house. They did it all by themselves. They said: ‘We want to raise money for breast cancer, Mummy.’ It really choked me up, I’m so proud of them.”

Neighbours Emma, nine, and James, five, Hale, helped their pals on the stall, and their mum Sally baked cakes for the youngsters to sell alongside the sweets.

Debbie, of Saw Lodge Field, posted about her children’s venture on Facebook and through a combination of social media, word of mouth, and help from a poster made by a woman from her Rock Choir singing group, friends, neighbours and strangers had soon helped the family raise £230 for Breast Cancer Care.

She added: “The neighbourhood just came out, it was so lovely. All the people down our road stopped to buy something or make a donation, and there were people who’d seen my post on Facebook driving around trying to find us.

“I met people I didn’t even know lived in our street. I think it’s really touched the community.”

The NHS usually invites women between the ages of 50 and 70 for breast screenings, but is considering extending that age range and is carrying out trials with women aged three years below and above the bracket.

A spokesman said: “Conventional mammograms are not as effective in younger women because the density of the breast tissue makes it more difficult to detect problems and the incidence of breast cancer is lower.

“As women go past the menopause, the glandular tissue in their breast ‘involutes’ and the breast tissue is increasingly made up of fat. This is clearer on the mammogram and makes interpretation more reliable.

“Digital mammography is better for screening younger women and denser breasts. It is equally effective as conventional mammography in post-menopausal women.

“We are currently running a trial to look at the impact of extending the screening invitation age range to women between the ages of 47 and 49, and 70 and 73. Results will be used to decide whether to implement this age extension throughout the programme.”