AN author who dreamed of her fiance’s death as she battled cancer is to launch her latest book.

Shelley Parker was five weeks into chemotherapy for a very rare form of cancer when she had a premonition that her childhood sweetheart, Steven Lewis, aged 38, was going to be killed.

The next day, the helicopter pilot crashed and died.

Shelley, aged 40, of Prescot, said: “The dream was so vivid. We were so close, we had been together for 24 years.

“That day, I had been told I was very seriously ill. My consultant said I only had weeks to live.

“We had only just got engaged. I was very close to death myself. In the dream I was screaming at God to let me die instead.”

Shelley was diagnosed with Birkitt’s lymphoma, the most aggressive form of cancer of the white blood cells. She had a near death experience while recovering in Whiston Hospital.

Shelley said: “I felt myself rising out of the bed and then felt myself plop back into the bed.”

She has dedicated her new book, Malok, to Dr Toby Nicholson, consultant haematologist, for saving her life.

It is a sequel to Return to Allaptria, which won world acclaim and became a bestseller.

Former teacher, Shelley, a member of the Society of Authors, said: “I wrote the book with Steven. He was the most positive person I ever knew. He achieved his dream to become a helicopter pilot. If I had given up it would have been a huge insult to him.”

Shelley is training to be a psychotherapist at St Helens College as she is keen to help cancer patients cope with their illness.

She said: “When I was in hospital I was visited by a spiritual nun and a vicar and it helped me so much. I thought: ‘If I survive this, I want to help other people get through this.’”

She launches her book at Halton Lea Library on Saturday from 11am to noon. She will be leading a writers’ workshop.

Malok is the second in a series of four books, and is on Kindle.

Steven, from Rainhill, died alongside his pupil Philip Gray in the crash near Blackpool in 2009.

Following a four-day inquest into his death, aviation experts representing his family, asked why the two-seater Schweizer 269 helicopter stopped working.

Coroner James Adeley recorded a narrative verdict at the hearing in Preston, after a jury found that their deaths were caused by the helicopter losing power, forcing it into auto-rotation, reducing Steven’s options to land it safely.