Circus artist flies high after cancer recovery

A circus performer who specialises in daring aerial hoop acrobatics has said she is "stronger than ever" after returning to the stage following breast cancer.

Laura Miller from Bognor Regis in West Sussex was treated at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth for two years after she was diagnosed with invasive stage 3 breast cancer at the age of 32.

She said her life "turned upside down" after the diagnosis but that the thought of returning to the stage helped her recovery.

Laura performs the aerial hoop for Circus Extreme and has recently performed in Portsmouth and Southampton.

Laura worked as a dancer at a holiday park in her early 20s when she met her partner who was a trapeze artist, and she began her circus journey.

Two years of training was needed for her to perfect the aerial hoop act - mounting, performing and spinning on a circular steel apparatus suspended from the ceiling in the big top.

It led to performance tours in Germany, Switzerland and Monte Carlo.

"I'm the only crazy person in my family to run away to the circus," she said.

"I was at the peak of my fitness, everything was amazing, life was great."

It was during a costume change on a performance in Puerto Rico in 2012 that she discovered a lump in her breast that she got checked when she returned home.

She was diagnosed with invasive stage 3 breast cancer, needing chemotherapy, radiotherapy and five operations over the following two years.

During her treatment, she said it was the thought of returning to performing that "kept me going".

"I could see myself holding on to the ring with my hands and and so I knew that I was going to come back somehow - it was there in my mind that I would get back to it," she said.

"It was far from easy but I would like anybody going through this now to know that you can get back to the way you were before - and even better."

After being given the all clear, it took Laura another two years to retrain to be able to perform again.

"I'm stronger now than I was before - I really fully believe that."

Her current act - the Aquatic Aerial Ring - involves combining elements of air, water and fire into the performance.

She starts the performance in the air and then plunges into a tank of water before spinning back up into the air repeatedly.