CANCER sufferer Chonette Taylor, 58, is retiring from her Mexican shop business after 20 years.

Mrs Taylor, 58, was diagnosed with leukaemia lymphoma last October and against medical advice decided not to have chemotherapy or drug treatment.

She has opted for a special nutritional diet instead, after months of research on the Internet.

It was the end of an era for her Mexican artefacts shop Quetzal Global Gallery, in New Road, Chippenham, when it finally closed its doors on Saturday after 16 years. "I don't want people to write me off. I hope I can still carry on helping there and the new shop will still be selling my jewellery," she said.

Mrs Taylor, originally from Mexico, started the business 20 years ago and then came to live in Chippenham four years later. She will continue to live above her former shop, which is being taken over by ornamental retailers Just The Thing.

Mrs Taylor said she did not want her retirement to be a sad occasion: "I am going but I am not really going. I have enjoyed everything here. I will continue to live here and remain part of this community as I have in the past," she said. "I thought I would be here until I was about 70. But I cannot cope with everything now."

To kick off her retirement Mrs Taylor will be going on a three-week holiday to Brazil to see her son Alexander, who moved there six months ago.

Mrs Taylor is determined to tackle her illness through natural measures, which includes a healthy diet without meat, sugar or salt.

Her consultant would still like her to start taking drugs at the end of the year but Mrs Taylor feels a good life is better than a poor extended one.

"The diet is not a cure and I have a ten-year life expectancy. But the main thing is that the quality of life is much better," she said.

"I am not horrified by death. I live every day as it comes."