CHRIS Nelson surveys the mountain of tablets and solutions she will shortly start taking in an extraordinary battle against cancer.

The 56-year-old terminally ill York woman is set to undergo complementary therapy involving no fewer than 43 different minerals, vitamins and other natural substances from around the world.

She has drawn up a written schedule under which she will take 197 tablets and capsules per day, along with 40 drops of anti-cancer liquids, and she will also be given injections on alternate days.

Chris, of Heworth, is being helped in her struggle by hundreds of Nestle Rowntree workers who have raised thousands of pounds to help pay for the treatment.

Her former colleagues swung into action after hearing Chris and her husband Allan might have to sell their home in Heworth Hall Drive to raise the necessary funds - even after cashing in their ISAs and after Allan had sold shares in his beloved soccer club, Partick Thistle.

The fundraising drive was launched by Nestl worker and good friend, Jean Boggan, who said: "Chris is a good friend as well as a colleague, so I thought to myself: she is in a dilemma, what can I do to help?"

She and fellow Nestl staff organised a host of events including a quiz night, belly-dancing display, a slave-for-a-day competition, sponsored swims and runs, and a musical night, with many local businesses donating restaurant meals and theatre tickets as raffle prizes.

Jean said £4,000 had been raised so far towards an initial target of £7,000.

Chris said: "You can have no idea what it's like to be on the receiving end of such generosity until it happens to you.

"We feel so humble that people should want to do this - for us! We still can't believe what they have done to help."

She also thanked Nestl Rowntree for allowing events to take place at the factory.

The therapy, prescribed by a London cancer specialist, is aimed at attacking the cancer while also protecting and building up Chris's immune system.

Chris says 14 different analyses were carried out on her blood, and she even had to send a sample of hair away for analysis, before the treatment was ordered.

"It came as a great shock to see so much having to be taken, and practices that were completely new, for example, coffee enemas, which we had only joked about previously, which were now about to become part of a daily routine."

She said she hoped to start the initial treatment in the next couple of weeks, once she had received all the supplies, but she would continue the search for funds for the next step of the expensive treatment.

"Much of our energy is taken up with wondering where the money is going to come from, because I don't have the option of discontinuing this treatment - life is too precious." She felt such treatment should become available on the NHS.

She said she was not looking for a miracle to happen, but was determined to do everything she could to continue living as healthily as she could for as long as possible. "I will not let this cancer beat me!" she said.

Anyone wanting to help the fund-raising drive should phone Jean on 01904 415743.

Updated: 11:01 Wednesday, October 22, 2003