by Malcolm Prior BBC News, Southampton

Sheila Wilson's designs have helped hundreds of women

For Sheila Wilson, the experience of watching her sister's two-year fight against leukaemia set her on the road to business success.

Seeing how upset Chantal was by hair loss brought on by chemotherapy, Mrs Wilson used her design skills to make brightly-coloured headscarves.

That idea is now a thriving one-woman business aimed at giving cancer sufferers their self-confidence back.

The idea for the scarves first came to Mrs Wilson when her sister - who died in 1999 - complained that the wigs she was using were too hot and itchy.

Mrs Wilson's sister, Chantal, lost her fight against leukaemia

Mrs Wilson, a former bridalwear designer from Hampshire, came up with a pattern and found the material for a brightly-coloured headscarf that was comfortable to wear.

It had an immediate impact.

She said: "It was almost as if she had a new lease of life.

"She was able to go out in public feeling very normal, almost for a little while forgetting that she was unwell."

It was in the months following her sister's death that Mrs Wilson first decided to go into business with her idea.

She now runs her firm, Luscious Lids, from a small box room in her home in Dibden Purlieu in the New Forest.

Hundreds of women come in to be fitted for the extravagant scarves and turbans.

Women come to Mrs Wilson's home for fittings

Mrs Wilson says the experience for both buyer and seller is about more than just the fashion.

"When a lady loses her hair it's very, very traumatic.

"Most ladies have told me it's more traumatic losing their hair, having it come out, than it is going for the treatments," the mother-of-three told BBC News Online.

"A lot of ladies keep themselves in the house because they do not want to go out, go to the shops or to see friends for fear of people realising that they are ill and knowing that they haven't got any hair.

"This gives them the confidence."

After selling through a number of hospitals across the South, the business went online in December 2003.

She now hopes the firm's success will act as a tribute to the woman who was its inspiration.

"Chantal is definitely the force behind me. Somebody said to me that the business is a memorial to her," said Mrs Wilson.

"She would have loved it."