IT WAS ten years ago but Oxford lawyer Nikki Poole remembers vividly being told she had weeks to live.

That experience is the reason she is a founding member of fundraising network Salus Women.

Named after the Roman goddess of wellbeing, Salus will span four hospitals across the county.

Ms Poole, managing director of Beaumont Street-based Hedges Law, spent five months in the Churchill.

After her weight plummeted to five-and-a-half stone, there were fears it was terminal cancer.

But doctors diagnosed visceral leishmaniasis, the second biggest killer in Africa after malaria, caused by a sandfly bite on a beach holiday.

She said: “Everyone was amazing and it left me wanting to give something back.”

The mother-of-two added: “It seemed a fantastic idea to reach out to other professional women for support.”

The group’s first event is a dinner at Somerville College next Tuesday.

Eighty business and professional women will be hosted by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust chairman Dame Fiona Caldicott.

Salus Women’s first task is fundraising for the Churchill surgical unit, where patients who need breast and gynaecological cancer surgery are treated.

Dame Fiona said: ‘The area was created in the 1980s but surgical procedures have changed a lot since then and there are now 8,000 patients each year treated there.

“It is a space that should be sensitively redesigned.”

Ms Poole added: “There are some phenomenal women across Oxfordshire and our idea is to mobilise their support.

“If you want something done, ask a busy woman.”