When Sarah Collins was desperately ill with bowel cancer, her mother Penny Campbell and childhood friend Claire Harper-Brown made a vow to find her the best possible treatment.

Their efforts may have saved her life.

Sarah, 35, of Canterbury Road, Faversham, first became ill in 2011 when she was mistakenly diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, and after months of wrong diagnoses and tests, doctors found a tumour the size of a cricket ball.

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After six hours of surgery, doctors removed a four kilogram mass, as well as half her large intestine and two-thirds of her small intestine and lymph nodes.

But that wasn’t the end of Sarah’s ordeal when she was later told the cancer was extremely aggressive and had spread to her liver and spleen.

Sarah, who works at University of Kent, said: “I knew something was seriously wrong. I kept saying to my partner Steve, ‘I don’t want to die’. It was a weird feeling.”

Mum Penny and childhood friend Claire started researching, desperately trying to find a way to save Sarah.

They hit upon 'miracle drug' Bevacizumab (Avastin), which seemed to offer a lifeline - but it is so expensive it is not normally funded on the NHS.

So the pair launched a campaign to secure funding for the life-saving drug.

Sarah said: “Claire is a nurse. She did some research and found out that Avastin can help people with advance bowel cancer. However, it is very expensive and you have to have special funding for it.

“My mum strongly requested my oncologist apply for funding for the drug. As we were running out of time, he agreed it could work for me and he applied. Claire contacted the MP Charlie Elphicke, and he backed the application.”

Video: Sarah and Claire talk about beating cancer

Avastin is available to patients with advanced bowel cancer in England via the Cancer Drugs Fund. Clinical trials are being carried out to find out if the drug benefits patients with other types of cancer, and how best to use it.

By June 2012, Sarah was clear of cancer and finally got rid of her stoma bag.

She married her partner Steve in April 2013.

She said: “Today I am absolutely fine. My mum is convinced it is a miracle."

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"Having cancer isn’t good but I am very fortunate that I had so many people to help me and get me through it. It was a real demonstration of human kindness.”

On Thursday, Sarah and Claire celebrated Sarah’s survival by cutting the ribbon to open the new Cancer Research UK shop in High Street, Canterbury.

Sarah said: “Shops like this provide vital revenue for Cancer Research UK and help fund the charity’s groundbreaking work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer – the type of treatment that saved my life. Without it, I - and thousands like me - wouldn’t be here today.”