ASK Debbie Dowie about her own experiences with breast cancer and she will say that she’s “been lucky.”

She was lucky to spot a difference in her breast that led to the discovery of two tiny cancerous lumps. Lucky to have caught it early, lucky that it hadn’t spread to her lymph nodes. And very lucky that she could afford swift private treatment.

That latter bit of luck that the Bolton-based wife of soccer pundit Iain Dowie had has resulted in something that is now helping hundreds of women – and men – around the region.

After Debbie had her surgery and was recovering, she decided she would raise money to provide equipment available on the NHS that would allow others to have the same quick, effective help she had.

The result was the creation of her own charity just over two years ago and the fundraising to date of more than £300,000. This has already bought vital medical equipment to help breast cancer patients in Bolton, Wigan, at Manchester’s Nightingale Centre and at the Paterson Institute next to The Christie hospital. And there’s more equipment on the way.

Debbie – whose husband played for Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham United and earned 59 caps for Northern Ireland before becoming a manager and later a Sky TV football pundit – is far from the archetypal WAG. She’s 45, mum to sons Ollie and Will, and even before her cancer was diagnosed was involved in fundraising events and working at the sharp end of charities like Home Start.

Her own traumatic medical journey started when she noticed a “very slight indent” in her left breast. Referred to the breast unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital, the lumps were discovered and the word “mastectomy” first used.

She was admitted to Manchester’s private Alexandra Hospital for surgery under Professor Andrew Baildam and opted for a special diagnostic gene test – Oncotype DX – which helps with individual choices for treatment. In Debbie’s case, the test showed that, post mastectomy, she didn’t need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Her post-operative recovery was good, and within six weeks she was actually out running again.

But Debbie’s diagnosis had shocked people. “We had no history of cancer in my family. I was healthy - I prepared meals from scratch, I didn’t smoke and I kept myself fit,” she says. “If I could get cancer I suppose other people felt that anyone could.”

Like everyone, Debbie knew women with breast cancer and had friends who had undergone surgery. She asked Professor Baildam what she could do to help, and he alerted her to the desperate need for the latest diagnostic equipment for NHS hospitals. “So I decided to turn my experience with breast cancer into a positive one,” she explained, “and Boot Out Breast Cancer was born.”

Her previous fundraising c.v. and her and Ian’s contacts – plus the contacts of supportive friends – added to the charity’s potential. The first event, a Bollywood evening at Gorton Monastery in Manchester, raised an amazing £75,000 which allowed the new charity to buy a piece of equipment called a Faxitron machine for the RBH which speeds up diagnosis during lumpectomies.

They’ve held a variety of similarly successful events around Bolton and Greater Manchester since and been sent donations from much further afield, especially by people appreciative of the charity’s inclusion of male sufferers of the disease.

Debbie, though, is not just about fundraising for equipment she is also passionate about greater awareness of breast cancer and early diagnosis. “It’s so important for women of all ages to examine themselves regularly, to know what’s normal for them and to look for anything unusual,” she says.

She’s very grateful to all the hardworking charity committee members, to its many supporters and to companies like Lantec, High Flyers Films and Hutchinson Commodities for their ongoing help.

Most of all, she’s grateful to her own family, to Iain and her sons, who constantly support her. She knows a cancer diagnosis means whole families affected, and she’s determined to try to spare other families that difficult journey. To help, perhaps, finally boot out breast cancer for good.