AFTER undergoing a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery as a teenager, a student is celebrating the news she is remission by helping organise a concert for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Morag McTiernan was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 19, two years after first seeking advice from her GP.

When the pain grew increasingly worse she sought a second opinion in April 2013 and after an ultrasound scan, mammogram and biopsy was given the devastating diagnosis.

Just before her 20th birthday she had a mastectomy and a full reconstruction of the right breast followed by four weeks of radiotherapy and ongoing hormone treatment.

“It was horrible. I still don’t think I have come to terms with it now but I could not have just sat at home and done nothing,” said Miss McTiernan from Linthorpe in Middlesbrough who returned to her performing arts degree at Sunderland University after the summer break.

"I think people were scared to ask anything in case they said the wrong thing but I was really open about it. I was just trying to carry on with life as normal."

She added: "If there is something that is not right and something does not feel right for you then you should keep going back to the doctors until you get an explanation.”

As a descendant of Florence Easton the famous soprano who premiered O’Mio Bambino Carro by Puchini at the Met in New York, Miss McTiernan who graduates this summer might be singing a solo at the Teenage Cancer Trust concert which is being held at Middlesbrough Cathedral on Friday, March 13

Starting at 7.30pm, the show will also include performances conducted by Clare Wills from Egglescliffe School Chamber Choir and Teesside Apollo Male Voice Choir which features her father, Peter.

Tickets costing £10 are available are available from www.getkonect.com/events/TCTconcert, by emailing thornfield18@btinternet.com or calling 01642-821866.

“The concert is a thank you to the Teenage Cancer Trust which has supported my daughter through the trauma of breast cancer,” he said. “She’s a game girl and very positive, she takes every day as it comes.”

To mark their 23rd wedding anniversary, Mr McTiernan ran the Great North Run with wife, Mhairi, raising £3,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust and in June she will be completing the Three Peaks Challenge.

“I would dearly love to pack the cathedral not only to raise much needed funds but to celebrate that Morag is now in remission,” he added. “A large turnout would be a big lift for Morag who has bravely been through a huge ordeal already and still has a way to go.”