AS the country braces itself for a scorching summer, a local mother has praised the bravery of her daughter who paid the ultimate price for sunbathing.

Elizabeth Holmes' daughter, Imogen Potter, died last week after a five-year battle with skin cancer.

Imogen, 37, who lived in Cross Hills and Skipton as a child and was a pupil at South Craven School, was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer, the most serious form of the disease, after a biopsy was carried out on a mole removed from the back of her thigh.

She realised it was likely that her years of sunbathing on holidays and at home in the garden had greatly increased her chances of getting skin cancer.

Therefore during her illness she devoted her time to spreading awareness about the disease and prevention measures.

Mrs Holmes, who lives in Barnoldswick, said: "She wanted to try to help other people realise that you should not be going on tanning beds and you should not be exposing yourself to the sun."

After she was diagnosed with the disease, Imogen, who was head of art at Sidney Stringer Secondary School in Coventry and lived in Birmingham, underwent another operation to remove a large chunk of her thigh where the original mole had been.

She had been warned there was a medium to severe chance of it returning and in the years following diagnosis she underwent operations when the cancer surfaced in her groin and stomach, lower abdomen and her left arm.

At Christmas it had developed in her brain and she received radiotherapy.

She died at home with her husband Dean Bowker, who she married in October 2003, and her mother, by her side.

Mrs Holmes said her daughter had been inspirational in the way she handled her illness.

She made sure she made the most of her life such as going on holiday, running the Race for Life, working on her art and spending time with her friends and family - she saw her nephew, Sam, who lives in Australia for the first time just before she died.

She also faced the cancer head-on and took part in clinical trials of a new drug.

Mrs Holmes said: "As soon as she found out she was ill, she said I am going to live my life as fully as I can and for the next five years she did."

She said she would remember her as "very happy and positive, very creative, and as an extremely elegant shopaholic, who loved to go abroad, see different places and was interested in everything".

Because she did not want anyone to go through what she had, Imogen was happy to talk about her own experiences with skin cancer.

She featured in a BBC Video Nation film, appeared on the national and local news and penned a letter of the month in She magazine.

She also teamed up with Cancer Research UK to spearhead a SunSmart skin cancer awareness campaign.

In an article in Woman's Own last summer she said: "I want to warn others of the dangers posed by the sun. If I can help save just one life, then all my efforts will be worth it."

She added: "Years of sunbathing definitely contributed to my situation. I used to sunbathe for as long as I could, especially on holidays in Spain and Greece. I'd only seek shade when I started to feel prickly heat.

"I used to long for a tan. I thought being brown was a sign of health. Now I know better - there's nothing healthy about having scars all over your body. I think it's really sad that society still pursues the idea of a tan being healthy."