Cheryl Simmons has always been interested in the supernatural.

So when her daughter Bianca was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 12, she found herself turning to the occult for answers.

Little did she know it was the start of a journey into clairvoyance that would completely change her life.

Now, she is harnessing her psychic abilities to help her win big at poker and says she has earned up to £15,000 a game online and at casinos across the world.

“I’d been to a couple of mediums before,”said Cheryl, who has lived in Whitstable for 19 years.

“But in 2001 when Bianca was ill, I was looking for reasons why this had happened. I was looking for hope.

“I went for a reading, and something kind of clicked.

“I realised this was something I wanted to develop.”

Cheryl taught herself to read tarot cards.

“The things I read encouraged me,” she said. “They helped keep me positive.”

Bianca eventually went into remission, but the cancer soon came back.

“They had exhausted all the chemotherapy and radiotherapy options,” said Cheryl, now in her early 50s. “The one thing that could save her life was a bone marrow transplant.

“They found her brother Dane was a 99% match, so on his 12th birthday he donated his bone marrow to her. It was incredible.”

When her daughter was finally in the clear, Cheryl focused on her psychic skills in the hope of helping others through difficult ordeals, in the same way clairvoyance had helped her cope with her daughter’s illness.

She trained at the Arthur Findlay College of spiritualism and psychic sciences in Essex, and opened a shop named Arcana in Hawley Street, Margate, where she gave tarot readings.

“You have 78 cards in a tarot pack,” she explained. “There are hundreds of different images, and so many different ways of reading them.

“But there’s also an element of psychic ability and intuition that comes with it.

“It’s something that’s in you. Some people have the psychic gift, and some don’t.

“I’ll have someone sit in front of me, and I’ll just know what their story is.”

Cheryl – now a professional tarot reader – explained that she doesn’t “predict the future”, but instead offers her clients advice.

“People come to me about affairs, or in financial dire straits,” she said. “They’ll ask ‘should I move? should I stay with my partner?’

“A lot of the time people know what they should do. They just need that guidance.”

Most recently, Cheryl has developed an affinity for playing cards as well as tarot, after she was introduced to Texas hold ‘em poker by friends.

She has forged a successful career for herself, and claims her psychic skills help her to win.

“If there’s a big game I’ll use the tarot to see what games I should lean towards" - Cheryl Simmons

This July, she will travel to Las Vegas to compete in the renowned 888poker-sponsored Women’s World Series of Poker.

“It’s the biggest tournament in the world of poker,” she said.

“I’m not a professional, but I love playing poker.

“I get a lot of help through channelling my psychic thoughts.

“If there’s a big game I’ll use the tarot to see what games I should lean towards.

“I definitely feel I have an edge.

“I can’t read the cards – I’m not God. But I can read people.

“In poker, it’s 50% about the cards and 50% about reading people, and the tarot helps me with that.”