WHEN the door of Velindre Hospital's isolation room shut behind her in November 2002, Gillian Parry knew that for the next few days she would be totally alone.

Deprived of the medication she required to keep her body working after the removal of her thyroid gland, she was at a very low physical ebb.

This was not some cruel and unusual punishment, however, but a vital step on the road to recovery from the thyroid cancer discovered almost by accident earlier that year.

Mrs Parry had just swallowed a radioactive iodine tablet, designed to kill off any microscopic traces of cancerous thyroid cells that may have remained. Unfortunately it meant she also had to be kept away from other people until the radiation in her body fell to safe levels.

It is a period Mrs Parry can recall today in uncomfortable detail, but she recognises it as the starting-point of a recovery she says has transformed her life.

The 39-year-old mother-of-two, of Chapel Farm Terrace, Cwmcarn, recently reached another milestone on the recovery path: beginning a new job.

The next comes on Sunday, when she and others in the fledgling Tenovus-backed Thyroid Cancer Support Group, and its supporters, hold a four-mile sponsored walk along the Crumlin arm of the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, followed by a series of other fundraising events at the Philanthropic pub in Pontywaun.

Thyroid cancer is not as common as other forms of cancer, but there are still 1,300 new cases every year in the United Kingdom.

"It was a bit of a fluke they discovered I had it, really, and it came completely out of the blue. I was shattered," said Mrs Parry.

"I'd been having stress in my life, and I'd become very lethargic. My neck was swollen, but my doctor said I had a goitre.

"Things didn't get any better, I had a needle biopsy in hospital, and was told they needed me in as soon as possible."

Two operations followed, in February and June 2002, the latter resulting in a total thyroidectomy. As the thyroid is the gland responsible for producing one of the body's most important hormones, which controls its metabolic rate, Mrs Parry had to begin taking thyroxine, which does the job the gland did in keeping her body going.

Post-operative treatment however, involved the radioactive iodine tablet treatment at Cardiff's Velindre Hospital, prior to which she had to stop taking the thyroxine.

"That was horrible. I was in a poor way by the time the isolation came round, sluggish, couldn't think straight. It took me ages to do the simplest things," she said.

"I was totally alone in that room. There was a leaded window about three feet square, but it didn't look out on much, and though my partner could talk to me via a telephone outside, I could barely see him.

"There was a television and the usual amenities. I had to eat my meals off a cardboard plate with a plastic knife and fork.

"I knew I had to be in there, but it was hard."

When she got back home, there followed a complicated routine which basically involved the people she loved doing their best to avoid her for several weeks.

"The children (17-year-old daughter Rachel and son Lewis, aged 15) weren't allowed in the house, they had to go and stay with their grandparents. If my partner came into the same room he had to sit as far away from me as possible.

"I had to sleep alone, make my own meals with my own utensils. My parents used to knock on the window to say hello or goodbye.

"I wasn't allowed to go to the cinema or ride on public transport, and I had to carry a little card in case I fell ill, to warn people."

The level of radiation, together with the nausea, vomiting, sleeping problems and thinning hair, gradually reduced, however, and Mrs Parry now "feels fine".

"Perhaps, not surprisingly, it has changed my life, and my attitude to life," she said.

"I'll have to take thyroxine for the rest of my life but that's a small price to pay. My check-ups have gone to every six months, and though I haven't heard the 'c' word (clear) yet, that's what we all want.

"I'm lucky because I have a close and caring family. My parents, Tudor and Deana, live a couple of miles away, and my partner, Alan Carnell, and his children, Hannah and Andrew, have been fabulous."