Body Talk: Cancer left me disabled but it will never stop me dancing; How Beverley's battle with the killer disease has only made her more determined to get to the top.

Byline: SUE CRAWFORD

TWIRLING gracefully around the dance studio, Beverley Wilson kicks a leg high in the air before flipping over into a backwards somersault.

Like the dozens of other students on her performing arts degree course, she has her heart set on becoming a professional dancer.

But what sets 21-year-old Beverley apart is that she is registered disabled.

In her teens she had cancer - tumours were removed from a lung and a leg. It has left her with little feeling in her right foot and lower right leg and she needs to wears a support to dance.

It makes the more intricate routines tough to master, but Beverley is not about to let any disabilities stand in the way of achieving her dreams.

"I'm determined to make it and nothing will stop me," says Beverley, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

"I can't lift my foot or jump properly. I often trip when I run and my foot can flop to the side, so dancing can be hard.

"I get quite frustrated, but when I can't do something I just push myself even more and, when the class is over, I'll practise on my own until I get it right.

"Dancing is my life - Mum says I danced before I could crawl. It takes me out of myself.

"If I'm angry I dance, if I'm sad I dance and if I'm happy I dance. I even dance in the supermarket."

Beverley has just completed the second year of a dance and drama course at the Metropolitan University in North London.

She longs to dance onstage to top R&B and hip-hop acts and she has already gone some way to fulfilling that dream.

Last year she toured the North East of England with hip-hop performer PSD and she was recently asked to star in a video for African hip-hop group Pounds & Naira.

It's all a far cry from her teenage years, spent in and out of Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary after she was diagnosed with Osteogenic Sarcoma - a type of bone cancer - in her right leg. She was only 13 at the time.

"I was really sporty," recalls Beverley. "I was in the netball and swimming teams and I did karate. I'd practise dance routines for hours in the garage with my cousin and then put posters on our street advertising our show."

One day, after a PE lesson, Beverley felt a sharp pain in her right knee. Her mother Lesley took her to the doctor twice but the pain persisted. So on their third visit, she was sent for an X-ray which showed a dark shadow - a biopsy revealed it was a tumour.

Beverley was admitted to hospital for chemotherapy straight away. "It was terrible," she says. "Every time I woke up I was sick. I had hair down to my waist and I lost it all. I was so weak I couldn't even get out of bed.

"I'd go home in a wheelchair after a course of treatment but I'd get a temperature and be re-admitted. Then I'd be back in for another course. This went on for six months.

"After a while I'd just stare at the wall without moving. Mum was scared that I was giving up.

"The worst point was when I had a nosebleed in the middle of the night. It wouldn't clot and it was streaming out. It was seven hours before they stopped it. I think Mum thought that was it, I was going to bleed to death."

Beverley didn't let the chemo stop her appearing in her school's talent contest. Against medical advice, she danced to music from Grease and The Lion King.

"I had no hair, I was really weak and I had to walk with a stick, but I just wanted to take part," she says.

When doctors removed the tumour, they also had to take away some of the muscle and nerves that had got wrapped around it. The operation was a success but Beverley was warned the cancer might return.

When she was 16, her worst fears were confirmed. She needed more chemo and an operation to remove part of her right lung.

Afterwards, the Sargent Cancer Care For Children charity arranged for her to attend a holiday camp.

She came home full of energy and enrolled on a BND in performing arts at North Tyneside College. But not everyone there was sympathetic to her plight.

"The teacher said everyone had to wear black high heels for a Spanish dance," she recalls. "He said, 'Beverley, you'll just have to spoil the show and wear black socks'.

"He gave me the lowest mark ever because he said I hadn't cooperated. I was in tears."

Today, she has a 12 inch scar down her right leg and a 10 inch scar across her back and side. One of her ribs was broken to reach her lung and will never heal properly. If she strains too hard, the pain is agonising. Yet she plays basketball, swims and can run a mile with ease.

Last year, Beverley got the all-clear. She celebrated the good news, and her 21st birthday, with a party for family and friends.

Now she is focusing on becoming a professional dancer. "When I go clubbing my friends will be chatting up guys while I'm on the dancefloor for four hours," she smiles. "When people look at the way I'm dancing they can't believe I've had cancer.

"Dancing is a hard business - people are turned down because of their looks or their weight. For me to have a disability on top of that makes it even harder.

"I've wondered occasionally if I should just get an ordinary job, but I couldn't. I might be disabled, but I can't live without dancing."

mirrorfeatures @mgn.co.uk

SARGENT Cancer Care For Children supports youngsters emotionally and practically. Take part in this autumn's Stroll For Sargent and help young cancer victims. Visit www.sargent. org

CAPTION(S):

TAKING STEPS: Bev in the dance studio; INSPIRED: Beverley today and, inset, with her family who helped her through the chemotherapy