A woman has apologised after she duped Preston North End players into believing that she had incurable bowel cancer.

Linda Moon, 33, claimed that her dying wish was to see Preston get promoted to the Championship and after hearing of the news, numerous players, including Kevin Davies, gave her signed shirts and made visits to meet her.

After rumours on Twitter began circulating that Ms Moon, who suffers with a vascular disease, had lied about the illness, she came clean in an interview with Rock FM.

She said: "It came out as cancer and it all just spiralled out of control and I couldn't get out of it. I've hurt and upset a lot of people, all I can do, sincerely from my heart is apologise."

Upon hearing the news, Davies, whose parents both died of the disease, tweeted: "Lost both my parents to cancer within 3 months of each other so it saddens me to hear how low people can stoop for their own gain.

"I'm not easily shocked and love helping people but incidents like this makes it harder. There are lots of genuine people around however. Thanks for all the messages and I know @pnefc are doing something to make sure genuine people will still be helped by a great club.

"What upsets me most is giving up my precious time and being deceived. Plus my daughter being upset when she met her. We live and learn."

Ms Moon also revealed in the interview that she has spoken to the police over concerns for her safety.