Cheryl Campbell's triumph over "impossible odds" impressed judges of the 2008 Barclays Trading Places Awards, who named her a bronze winner.

Cheryl, who started Take Care Footcare earlier this year, was presented with a commemorative award at a black-tie dinner at the Marriott Hotel, in Grosvenor Square, London.

The mum-of-three, from Crowland, near Peterborough, also walked away with £1,100 worth of Microsoft desktop and server software.

Cheryl's pride and joy are her three children, but, as a single parent, she has always struggled to make ends meet.

Determined not to be dependent on benefits, Cheryl (43) enrolled at Peterborough Regional College to study holistic therapy.

During this time, Cheryl spotted a gap in the market for qualified footcare and signed up for another course, specialising in this area.

Unfortunately, two weeks before her final exams, Cheryl was diagnosed with breast cancer and took the brave decision to put off her surgery in order to take her exams.

Over the next few months, her dream of becoming a non-surgical footcare specialist would get her through both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Once Cheryl recovered, there was nothing standing in her way.

Following a visit to the Jobcentre, she was put on the Welland Enterprise scheme and, on January 18 this year, became self- employed.

Cheryl's mobile footcare business services those in her local community who are housebound, disabled or elderly.

Due to an impressive 90 per cent referral rate, Cheryl also now runs her clinic full-time.

John Davis, Barclays marketing director for local business and a judge on the panel, said: "The calibre of this year's entries was exceptional, but the judges unanimously agreed that Take Care Footcare shone out as an outstanding business that has thrived despite what seemed like impossible odds.

"All of us congratulate Cheryl on being named a bronze winner in this year's Barclays Trading Places Awards and we hope her story will inspire other budding entrepreneurs, who face similar difficulties in their private lives, to come forward and turn their own business dreams into reality."

The government-backed awards, now in their fourth year, are supported by Jobcentre Plus, The Prince's Trust, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, The National Federation of Enterprise Agencies and Microsoft.