Walking for wards: Breast cancer sufferers take fundraising in their stride

In fact, the Edinburgh vet had more reason than most to stay at home with a bumper bag of tortilla chips and a cup of cocoa last June. Diagnosed with breast cancer four months earlier, she refused to let the small matter of chemotherapy prevent her from taking part in the annual charity MoonWalk.

Sporting a bra decorated with a menagerie of animals (she's a vet, remember?), and having won her entry in the charity event through Scotland on Sunday, she trudged 13 miles through the night to raise money for others fighting breast cancer.

Hunter and thousands like her are now celebrating the opening of a state-of-the-art ward at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital, dedicated to the treatment of breast surgery patients.

Paid for with 500,000 from the Edinburgh MoonWalk – a sum matched by NHS Lothian – the new ward six has fewer beds, allowing more privacy and space for patients, and a balcony giving fresh air and great views across the city.

Hunter would have been forgiven for taking the night off, but never considered backing out of the event. "I had surgery in the March and chemo from April to September," says the 46-year-old, a fact she admits made establishing a training regime difficult.

"I enjoy walking – I've done hillwalking and mountain biking – so I'm already quite fit. But I was very tired, and some days I could only walk as far as the paper shop and back. I just tried to do something every day."

When it came to the big event, she was still recovering from a bout of chemo three days earlier. "I was tired even before I started, but I just got caught up in the euphoria of the evening and kept going."

At least one woman who would like to thank walkers is Sheila Smith. The 56-year-old, from Mayfield, Midlothian, was one of the first patients to use the new ward, and remembers the old one from a visit in 2008. "I was diagnosed after a routine scan and it came as a bolt out of the blue. I couldn't believe it. The day I got the results was a real shock."

She was admitted to hospital for a mastectomy just a week later, and confesses that she didn't pay that much attention to her surroundings at the time. "It was just a ward like any other, but I could see there were knocks on paintwork and the curtains could have been a bit newer."

After six months of chemotherapy and a year of Herceptin treatment, she was back at the Western General for reconstructive surgery this month, and that was when the change struck her.

"I was wheelchaired in, and just seeing the nice surroundings made me feel so much better. It's hard to describe. I was feeling pretty low – I don't take well to antibiotics – but everything looked so bright and airy. It lifted me. There were three of us in a room that used to have eight beds, and we had a wonderful view of the castle and Arthur's Seat.

"When you're feeling really ill, you can sit on the balcony and chat to other people who are going through the same thing and it makes it so much better. We're all at different stages and having different treatments, but we're all in the same boat."

Hunter, who completed her course of radiotherapy in November, admits she is still not fully fit. Nevertheless, she has upped her game and is planning to cover the full 26 miles of the MoonWalk this year, embracing the Mardi Gras theme. "I'm walking with my sister, who's a doctor, and she has been knitting flowers and things that we're going to put all over our bras.

As for Smith, at home recovering from surgery, she is still feeling sore and admits that chemotherapy was tough-going. But she, too, is looking to the future with a positive outlook. "It has been a long haul, but I feel now that I'm moving forward at last."

The MoonWalk Edinburgh has raised 9,915,997 so far. The Full Moon (26.2 miles) is fully subscribed but places are available for the Half Moon (13.1 miles) on 19 June. See www.walkthewalk.org

This article was first published in The Scotland On Sunday, April 25, 2010