Tarot card reader Margaret Solis

TOP Scots clairvoyant Margaret Solis, who is battling breast cancer, believes it was a message from beyond the grave that saved her life.

She said: "If it wasn't for my brother James, I don't think I would have gone for a routine mammogram. I feel he has spiritually pushed me since he passed on."

It was just months after both her brother and sister died that the psychic-to-the-stars was told she had the disease. The mammogram had detected a malignant tumour.

Initially, the news devastated the mother-of-three, but today, just four weeks after a lumpectomy, she is philosophical about her illness.

She hopes to inspire and encourage other women in similar situations through her readings and public appearances.

Margaret, 60, said: "I want to tell everybody because I have had a narrow escape. Maybe it's destiny. Maybe I am supposed to have had this escape to wake other people up."

She added: "When I was told, I was terrified, particularly for my three children, but they are thankful it was caught in time.

"At first, I was shocked and angry. I thought, 'What have I done? All I try to do is help people'. But it's not about karma, there are plenty of good people who die.

"I began clearing out my drawers and getting my will sorted. I thought this was 'goodbye world' because I know of so many people who have died of breast and other cancers."

Margaret's cancer diagnosis in March this year is the third tragedy to hit the Solis family in recent months.

She explained: "I lost my brother James to diabetes and my sister Susan to Huntington's Disease in January. Susan died 10 days after James. It was an awful time. Then on February 10, I went for my first mammogram.

"They say deaths happen in threes, so I thought it would be me next."

Margaret admitted she had never attended a routine mammogram appointment before. Like many women, she used work or simply being "too busy" as an excuse. But this time, she felt differently.

And she puts it down to the help from her late brother.

She said: "Strange things were happening to me all the time. Every time I switched on the radio, Bon Jovi's Living On A Prayer was on, the song played at my brother's funeral.

"There really are signs all around us. Thanks to my brother, I was converted. The mammogram wasn't even sore. The pressure applied was the same as having your blood pressure checked."

A few weeks later, Margaret attended a call-back appointment with her son Paul, 38, by her side. A biopsy was carried out because of the abnormality picked up by the mammogram and less than a week later, her worst fears were confirmed.

A cancerous lump, measuring less than a centimetre was discovered in her right breast.

Margaret, whose other two children Raquel, 36, and Sharon, 34, live in London, said: "I then went to the New Victoria Hospital on the morning of April 4 to have surgery under a general anaesthetic. I was out by 6pm.

"They also had a look at my lymph nodes, but they were clear, so that was good. I now just have a scar which looks like a scratch."

With her next hospital appointment on May 25, and a three-week course of radiotherapy looming, Margaret is upbeat and channelling her energies into her next public appearance.

She will be doing tarot card readings on stage at this year's Girls' Day Out show at Glasgow's SECC which starts on Friday, as well as selling hand-made Patience healing bracelets.

Last year, she was the most popular speaker at Girls' Day Out. Hundreds of women heard her predictions. This year's show has given the mum-of-three, who will be on Tamoxifen for the next two years, a positive focus.

She said: "You need something to look forward to. There is no point in thinking, 'Oh my god'."

Margaret, who famously predicted the Piper Alpha and Lockerbie disasters and the divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales, says she does not use her psychic abilities to her own advantage as that would be wrong.

But the clairvoyant has had intuitions about clients' health in the past. She said: "When I do one-to-one readings, I urge people to go and get this checked or that checked. Many write back to say they're glad I did.

"It would be wrong to predict my own future. When you are given this gift, it's to aid other people."

Now she is hoping her experience helps more women through their own trauma and will be raising awareness about her recent diagnosis at Girls' Day Out.

The former Sunday Mail clairvoyant says she has known she is different since childhood.

She claims she has been "seeing dead people" since she was three years old and inherited her talents from her mother and grandmother.

Her work is so renowned, stars like Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore have asked to meet her.

The police have also called on her psychic abilities to help in unsolved murder cases. Those investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann four years ago also asked for her help.