When I saw the Forestside competition in the Belfast Telegraph, I immediately thought of mum. She always runs around after me, my gran and my grandad but rarely does anything that is just for herself. I know everyone thinks their own mum is the best, but I definitely think mine is!

When I was 27 I became really ill. Doctors were originally looking for lymphoma, which is like a cancer of the lymphatic system, and I had my spleen taken out and different biopsies. My lymph node had enlarged and blocked off the blood vessels to my chest, so I got breathless and dizzy very easily and, since my spleen was removed, my immune system went up the left. I felt run down and sometimes physically ill.

When I came out of hospital I absolutely couldn't stay on my own and, although I have my brother and grandparents, I don't know what I'd have done if mum and dad hadn't taken me back in to live with them in Comber, Co Down.

I didn't think I would be back for such a long time. We were so sure that I was going to start chemotherapy and move forward but then it just dragged on and on with no one understanding what was wrong with me, and unfortunately I still don't feel we're much further forward. But mum has been fantastic. She's taken me to doctors and always kept a brave face on even though this is a stage in her life when she should just be enjoying herself.

There are days when I couldn't get out of bed and days when I was feeling really nauseous and thought I didn't want anything, but mum would maybe bring me a bowl of soup or a cup of tea and say: "See if you can manage this". She always managed to think of something to make me feel better, whether it was hot water bottles or chicken soup.

I always kept my house up in Coleraine where I had been working as a French and German lecturer at the University of Ulster and as a foreign language guide at the Bushmills distillery. And, although I had to give up work, I still go home some of the time to try and keep some independence.

But it's great to know I can come down and stay with mum and dad if I'm having a bad episode. I think everybody needs their mummy, especially when they are ill. We've always been a close family, but being ill means I've spent more time with mum and dad than I normally would have done.

In a way, being ill has been a blessing because it's meant I've got to spend more time with mum and we've built up a really special relationship. We're not equals — she's always going to be my mum and there's a level of respect there — but we are like friends now and it's more of an adult relationship.

Growing up, I was a typical stroppy teen but I can't think of the last time we argued.

We just enjoy going out together or sitting and having a giggle over something. Physically people say I'm more like my dad but there's the odd photo where you can see my mum there and as I get older I can see myself becoming more and more like her in things I say and do. I'd like to think I've inherited her patience and her sense of humour, she never gets wound up easily.

Mum's a very busy woman, she still works in a pharmacy in the Ulster Hospital at Dundonald a few hours in the morning and teaches piano in the afternoons. A couple of years back she developed diabetes. The doctors said she probably would have got it eventually but the stress brought it on early and she also has arthritis that bothers her from time to time, but she never feels sorry for herself or spends any money on something that's just for her.

That's why I think it's so lovely that she's won and that someone will pamper her for a change with an evening in a country club spa, a massage, flowers and a beauty hamper — things she'd never in a million years buy for herself.

I know it's been hard for dad and her seeing their child ill and although mum's great at keeping me positive I know she's had her moments where she goes and has a wee cry.

I don't know exactly what it was about my entry that made it stand out — maybe the judges felt sorry for her, stuck with a 30-something daughter still at home! She even agreed to take my cat on when I moved back in.

We had a good giggle over me sending in the application but mum couldn't believe it when she won. When I told her about the prizes she started trying to give the spa break to me, even though the whole point was that it was supposed to be her treat!

I'm getting married in August but I don't see my close relationship with mum changing, or if it does, it will only be for the better. I'm just really pleased that I got this opportunity to try and show her just how much she means to me and how I can never repay her."

Margaret's story

There were tears, just of appreciation when Lisa told me she'd entered me and I found out I'd won.

When she was in hospital at the start it felt like the bottom had dropped out of my world and we all wondered how we were going to get through it. Seven or eight years later and we're still on the roundabout.

She was a young person, just graduated and starting out and for her to get so ill, it felt like the rug had been snatched from under us.

I just wanted to do anything I could to try and make it easier for her.

It was easier for us to keep her at home because when she went back up to her house in Coleraine we were always worrying that she might have fallen or be lying on her own feeling awful. She can't walk far so I would support her and be ready and watching in case she collapsed.

Lisa and I would always have been close but we're even more so now. Now that she's an adult it's a different relationship and she's more like another best friend.

It's been no hardship looking after her especially given the fact that she tries to be so bright about everything — I feel if she can put a brave face on it then so can I.

I think the biggest challenge as a mum is worrying about the big wide world and trying to shield them from it but sooner or later you have to let them out in it.

But, with both my children, the biggest reward is their love and seeing them get on in life".