HE’S the former Premier League goalkeeper whose hands have netted thousands of first class saves.

Saints goalkeeping coach Vince Bartram faced many a weekly battle during his 19-season career as a professional footballer at Wolves, Bournemouth, Arsenal and Gillingham before his playing days were ended by a serious wrist injury.

But few will know that his greatest ever save in fact took place off the pitch – when he discovered the lump in his wife’s breast that turned out to be an aggressive form of cancer.

“He kept his greatest save for me – he literally saved my life,” said Tracy, who together with Vince is backing Stand Up To Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign by Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 to raise vital funds for research and help save more lives more quickly.

It was New Year’s Day in 2010 as the couple were enjoying ‘a kiss and a cuddle’ when Vince came across the mass in Tracy’s left breast.

The former England netballer, who lives in Bournemouth with Vince and their two children Miles, 13, and Heath, 10, said: “We were doing what husbands and wives do when he said to me ‘what’s that?’

“I hadn’t noticed it and wasn’t exactly checking myself well at that point if I am honest.

“I made an appointment with my doctor a few days later, but I don’t think I ever really believed at that stage that it would be cancer.

“I was referred to the hospital and within a couple of weeks I was having the checks, a scan and a biopsy. Then it was just a case of waiting.

“Obviously we were both really anxious but to me there was little point in worrying and dwelling on what might be – we didn’t know and we had to wait.”

Tracy, 47, remembers the day clearly.

Her parents had come to mind their grandsons while she and Vin, 48, who is now goalkeeping coach at Southampton Football Club’s academy, returned to Bournemouth Hospital to hear the news.

She said: “I knew before we got in there what was coming because I saw the breast cancer nurse was there too.

“We were called into the room and they sat me down and told me straight: I had cancer.

“I was just concentrating, trying to take in everything they were saying.”

Tracy was told she had Grade III triple negative breast cancer and would need chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy.

She said: “I think Vin was quite taken aback when he heard the word cancer.

“I was just taking it in as best I could.

“When they said they felt it was treatable it was such a relief.

“We came out of the hospital and we both had a few tears before we went home.

“I remember saying to Vin firmly ‘we will fix this, I will be fine’ and I really believed that.”

Tracy added: “We got back home and told mum and dad and there were more tears but I felt I had to be strong for them – for everyone else.

“From that moment I made a point of saying I did not want anyone coming to see me and crying and pitying me – and from that day on not one of my family or friends cried in front of me.

“Looking back now that must have been very hard for all of them because it must be hugely emotional and worrying for them.

“I think I had a very positive mind – staying focused made it much easier to deal with.

"There was no way I was prepared to sit in a chair in the corner and just accept it and let cancer get the better of me.”

Tracy never stopped working in her role as communications manager for Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance throughout her treatment apart from the three occasions when she was admitted to hospital having succumbed to an infection.

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She said: “I was trying to continue day to day and do as much as I could and my work colleagues were so supportive, they were amazing.

“The chemotherapy was really tiring, it was up and down for me, but I knew I had to feel poorly in order to feel better.

“I was fortunate to have both our mums around – the house was always being cleaned top to bottom because they were concerned about infection.”

Tracy lost her hair after her second dose of chemotherapy which was one of the toughest moments of her illness.

“Vince was away with work at the time and I was stood drying my hair in the bedroom when it literally starting coming out in chunks.

“My friend came round and shaved it off that day.

“I lost my eyebrows and lashes too.

“In my mind I had to think it was a good thing it was going because it was a sign that the treatment was working.”

A mum of two young boys at the time, Tracy rarely went out of her house – let alone to the school gates – without a hat to cover her bald head.

She continued: “I don’t know how Vince felt seeing me without hair – he was probably just glad to have me around.”

In the summer of 2010 Tracy completed her chemotherapy and she underwent surgery to remove the lump and lymph nodes.

Six weeks of radiotherapy followed in Poole which Tracy described as “like a walk in the park”.

She remained under the watchful eye of consultants for five years following her diagnosis until October last year when she was officially released from treatment.

Tracy said: “Reaching that point is something to be really happy about but it’s also really scary.

“I felt elated that I’d done it and it was all behind me, that five years had gone.

“But that regular check where they could have a feel or a poke was like a security blanket to me.

“It will never go away, the whole cancer thing is now part of my life – but I feel it’s made me a much better person.

“No matter what happens to you in life I believe that things happen for a reason.”

Vince said his wife’s determination to survive and beat her cancer would now serve as an inspiration to others.

Talking about how she coped, he said: “Tracy showed so much courage in how she dealt with her illness and faced up to the treatment.

“There were tears at the initial diagnosis, but from then on it was all positive.

“I remember her saying ‘no one has told me I’m going to die’ and in a way we both just got on with it, almost with a degree of blasé.

“There were tough times, but predominantly it was all positive and I am sure being that way helped her to stand up to this horrible illness.

“Her courage, determination and sheer will to survive was an inspiration to many around her.”

Tracy is now focussed on helping other women diagnosed with breast cancer.

She said: “It was a very difficult time in my life and for my family and I have my husband to thank for saving my life – and he knows it!

“Now I feel it is my job now to help others going through the same and making sure people know you can come out the other side.”