SINGER Leanne Masterton's ambitions to head for the West End stage and a professional career in musicals almost collapsed when she succumbed to a mysterious illness.

Holding down a senior management job with a railway company and continuing to grace Gwent theatres with a succession of highly-praised performances in musical theatre, straight drama and as a solo singer, she was suddenly taken ill last year.

"We didn't know what it was," said the 34-year-old, of Will Paynter Walk, Newport. "You name it I was going down with it.

"It got to the point where I could not walk upstairs without being short of breath and in pain, and of course the pain was making me depressed.

"Everything around me seemed to stop. I had problems with short-term memory. I was rehearsing for the part of Natasha in a play called Rough Crossing and it was the only thing that was making me get out of bed. I ploughed through it all. I do have a strong character and I don't like to be beaten.

"My doctor was very supportive but blood tests showed nothing. Then I went through Yellow Pages and found the Nutrition Clinic in Blaenavon run by Caroline Edwards. She has been my saviour.

"We did some tests and Caroline and I spoke at length about what might be wrong. We broke it down to yeast infection and we began treating it with a change of diet." This has meant no wheat, dairy products, sugar or fruit but plenty of vegetables and protein. Also out was hand-reared meat from animals suckled on milk.

"I am not one to be beaten," she said. "I got to the point where I said to myself that I would not roll over and accept that that was my lot. But I was so poorly that I wasn't giving the future a thought. Yet for a singer, being out of breath is a catastrophe." It's also a timely recovery.

Leanne has won a place for a year at the Guildford School of Acting, where the tuition fees alone will cost her £10,000.

Luckily, she is back to her former glowing self in order to raise the money. A debut CD of songs from the shows called A Piece of Sky is on sale and she is organising another one-woman show as well as a dinner-dance, with some of the proceeds going to cancer research. For the first time she is appearing in pantomime - Cinderella, on tour with Owen Money from November 30 to February 24 "It has all been worth it," she said. "My parents now say the old Leanne is back and friends say I am looking well."

A Piece of Sky is also the title song, sung in the show Yentl by Barbra Streisand. It's about someone finding doors opened and the sun shining from a bright new world. It couldn't be more apt as the talented and determined Leanne Masterton prepares to do what she has always wanted, interruptive illness notwithstanding.

"With anything, you reach a glass ceiling at some point," she said. "And though I have worked with many friends in many societies and have really enjoyed it, sometimes you want to do more. "I would not want to reach 65, receive my gold watch but look back and wonder, 'What if?'"