A YOUNG cancer survivor from Billericay was invited to the prestigious Women of the Year lunch in recognition of her charity work.
Megan Blunt, 20, attended the annual event on Monday at the Intercontinental Hotel in London, along with 400 other inspirational women.
After beating cancer at 12, Megan has been committed to fundraising and creating awareness about childhood cancer, and has even written a children's book on the illness.
"I was so excited to be invited," said Megan, from Sylvan Tryst.
"It does feel weird though and I feel so undeserving.
"I've met so many amazing people in the last eight years that I can't believe I was chosen to go."
Megan was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, at 12 after being misdiagnosed twice.
Since beating the illness the former St Martin's School pupil has written a book in memory of her friend, Nathaniel, who she met in hospital and who passed away in 2006.
The book 'Chemotherapy, Cakes and Cancer' has since been translated into five languages and is now provided free to children diagnosed with cancer in the UK.
And inbetween her studies at Warwick University, Megan has been running a hospital food campaign, 'A Meal When You Want', or AMY, in memory of her friend Amy Wallace, to provide meals for young cancer patients at the University College Hospital London.
She has convinced supermarket giant Tesco to provide microwave meals to allow for a greater variety of food for younger patients and more flexible meal times.
She said: "I want to improve the quality of hospital food in the University College Hospital London and so far we have managed to get Tesco to provide microwave meals.
"I have future plans to continue working with Tesco and the Cancer Trust and push similar schemes in different hospitals."
Megan won a Pride of Britain Award in 2007 and was an Olympic Torchbearer in 2012 after being the only cancer survivor from her ward.
She added: "When I was diagnosed my parents told me 'you're not an ill person, you're a person with cancer.'
"I think when you realise that, you can pick yourself up and be more positive.
"I have wonderful, surreal moments in my life and then I come back to reality.
"It is hard work, but it is worth it."
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, president of the Women of the Year lunch, said: "The remarkable thing about this lunch is that it's not just about celebrity or success. It's about seeing the exceptional in unusual places, those that have taken the hard knocks, survived them and stuck at it."
Previous Women of the Year winners include Katie Piper, who set up a charity to help burns survivors, and singer Annie Lennox for her philanthropy.
