A cancer survivor can finally heave a sigh of relief after she was faced with the perspective of seeing her business dreams crushed.

Adele Holmes, 51, applied to Allerdale council to formally turn two rooms at her home at Laithwaite Close, Cockermouth, into treatment rooms for a Chiropody/Podiatry business.

But she thought her dream of running the business could be crushed when some neighbours objected to the plans due to fears the practice would cause nuisance.

They raised concerns about road safety and the volume of traffic using the private road owned and managed by Adele, which they say was already busy and falling into disrepair.

They raised concerns about road safety and the volume of traffic using the private road owned and managed by Adele, which they say was already busy and falling into disrepair.

However Allerdale's development panel unanimously approved the application on Tuesday and Adele burst into tears as she heard the outcome.

She launched the practice in 2012 but needed to formalise it with a planning application as the practice got busier.

She said: "I wanted an easier life. I left a successful career and I found this house which was perfect. The previous owners taught music from the same rooms I use for the practice and the house was built to have a business in it and that's why we wanted it.

"If we had lost that application I would have lost all this and it would have been difficult with our mortgage because it's tied to my business."

It was a conscious lifestyle choice for Adele to move to Cumbria and run a small business from home after surviving cancer.

She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer 20 years ago.

Ten years ago she moved to Cumbria with her husband of 17 years Charles and their two daughters Freya, 16, and Gaia, 14.

She left a career as a consultant in the multi-disciplinary diabetic foot team at Wirral Hospital Trust.

She said: "I've never had the all-clear from the cancer, it keeps coming back and that's why I decided to step down from my career in the NHS. I'm constantly on medication and it affects my health generally."

The stress of this process has caused Adele to be off sick and have heart troubles.

She is the one of the few accredited podiatrist in Cumbria.

She said: "I'm so passionate about my job, I've done this for 30 years. When I worked for the NHS I prevented amputations in people with diabetes, effectively saving lives. Now I treat all sorts of foot and lower limb problems but mostly it's about caring for these people, I am a very caring person."