Mum and daughter Sheila Batty and Jane Redwood were 'two baldies together' while they were both treated for breast cancer. Gael Stigant hears their story.

They don't 'do' glum. So instead of complaining about their gruelling treatment for breast cancer, mum and daughter Sheila Batty and Jane Redwood look on the bright side.

Sheila says: "It's not going to make a blind bit of difference how mad you get, you might as well carry on and enjoy yourself. If you worry about it you just make yourself worse."

Great-grandma Sheila, 62, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. She had her left breast removed and was in remission for eight years before the cancer returned last year and she had her right breast removed. She says it was 'devastating' to hear the cancer had come back but she was more worried for daughter Jane, who began treatment for breast cancer herself in 2009.

Sheila says: "When she got it I still say I got it back through worrying about her. I still think stress can do it." Most cases of cancer occur 'by chance' but some families are more affected than others because of the genetic make-up.

Jane, 43, says: "I found a lump. I left it a couple of weeks because I'd just had a cyst removed but I finally went and they referred me to the hospital and diagnosed me with aggressive breast cancer. "You just feel mad. You think there's all them bad sods out there that don't have it but the feeling does soon pass. You just have to get on with it."

Mum-of-three Jane had her right breast removed and had chemotherapy, then radiotherapy.She described radiotherapy as like being on a sun bed. "It's a big X-ray and you don't feel nowt, it's afterwards when you've finished the course," she explains. "It just feels like you've got sun burn really bad."

Jane was just finishing her chemotherapy when Sheila's began, and her radiotherapy treatment ended soon after Sheila's started.Sheila said chemotherapy is less scary than people think.She says: "It's not as bad as they portray it on films or on the telly. They're enough to frighten you to death and it's not as bad as that. "You feel tired when you've had chemo and then you can't get to sleep because of the steroids. I used to take a kettle to bed and I watched so much telly - lots of Home and Away."

As the pair, both of Kingswood Crescent, Platts Common, were being treated at the same time - Jane at Weston Park in Sheffield and Sheila at Barnsley Hospital - they also both got the side effects at the same time. "We both had baldy heads together," said Sheila. "We didn't really wear wigs as the chemotherapy makes the top of your head really hot. But we wore bandanas sometimes when we were out and about - we were setting off a new trend in Hoyland.

"I had blue and black ones and Jane had a leopard print one. Sheila is now in the all-clear but sadly Jane has recently been having tests as the cancer appears to have come back.But she says it's not going to get her down."

You just always think there's someone worse off, especially when you see the little kids with cancer. You think if they can do it then surely you can."

•Sheila's nephew, Paul Hargreaves, has arranged two fundraisers for Breast Cancer Research with his wife Tracy. The first is a pub crawl tomorrow and the second is a function in the Royal Oak on July 2 from 2pm. Professional darts player Dean Winstanley will be there and there will be plenty of family entertainment.