A WOMAN who was told her back pain was a muscular problem died six months after being diagnosed with breast cancer, it was revealed yesterday.

Susan Appleby, 38, first went to the doctors with back pain and was told she had pulled a muscle.

Despite her own checks and another hospital visit, no signs of the cancer were found.

But in June, Mrs Appleby, of Elsdon Close, Blyth, North-umberland, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer following a biopsy.

Mrs Appleby, who leaves a husband, Ian, a joiner, and three-year-old daughter Cath-erine, died last month.

Her mother Doreen, 61, a retired nurse, said: "It started off in March when she said she had pain in her back. The doctor treated her for a pulled muscle.

"In May, she went to see a consultant and everybody at the hospital, even the doctors, kept saying they had checked her breasts and there was no lump.

"They found other signs that were not normal in a young woman, but it was not until June 13, after a breast biopsy, that she was diagnosed as having terminal breast cancer.

"She felt very strongly that there was a message to get across - that if you are feeling ill and don't know what it is, you should be asking the doctor to look for something else."

Her colleagues at Morpeth tax office, where she worked for many years as a revenue officer, have set up a fund in her name, the Susan Appleby Tribute, to help fight breast cancer and so far more than £1,700 has poured in.

She died in Newcastle General Hospital on December 29, after receiving treatment both at Wansbeck General Hospital and Newcastle.