THANGAM DEBBONAIRE has been making the trade union movement’s annual pilgrimage to Tolpuddle since she was a child.

Her grandmother, a stalwart of the co-operative movement, organised a coach every year that would stop off at the seaside on the way home.

“It was a big deal. It was a big part of what my family stood for. We were very much a Co-op Party, Labour Party and trade union family.”

So she couldn’t have been prouder to be invited back to speak there this year as Labour MP for Bristol West.

Having given up a job as a researcher for a domestic violence charity and remortgaged a house in order to dedicate herself to winning the seat from the Lib Dems, she would have been justified in looking forward to this weekend as the perfect end to her first term in Parliament.

Then just six weeks after the general election, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She had still hoped to make it Toldpuddle and had even written her speech.

That will be read out at Sunday’s rally, but a long journey, just two weeks into a four-month cycle of chemotherapy, was too much, too soon.

“I’m at that point in the cycle where, although I sound quite perky (which I didn’t last week), I feel quite vulnerable and weak,” she tells the Star.

“So I’ve just taken the decision I can’t speak on Sunday.

“I’m very, very comfortable with people knowing that the reason I’m not coming is this and I’m very keen that people learn the signs of breast cancer.”

While a course of chemotherapy is perhaps the toughest imaginable start to life as an MP, Debbonaire has thrown herself into her parliamentary and party duties.

Her constituency office has already helped hundreds of people, she’s convened a summit about Bristol’s housing crisis and my call interrupts her study of the Tories’ Welfare Reform and Work Bill.

Her verdict: “The Tory Party is busy trying to take our clothes, except it is making wild claims that aren’t evidence-based.

“To say that it has introduced the living wage is just a nonsense. It’s not a living wage and does not take into account that they’ve cut tax credits.

“It makes no sense and our job is to make sure everybody knows that this is smoke and mirrors.”

It’s an “entirely depressing” situation, she concludes.

So as the labour movement meets in the Dorset countryside to raise its spirits after one election, how can the Labour Party raise its numbers of seats at the next?

Debbonaire is just one of four Labour MPs in south-west England’s 55 constituencies, and one of just 12 in 197 southern seats.

With a nod to Ed Miliband’s perennially poor public ratings, she says style, not substance, is Labour’s weakness.

“People are talking about Scotland,” she says, “but in the south we know that if we don’t win back seats here then we can’t have a Labour government.

“We’ve got the policy forum, we’ve got policy experts, we’ve got academies, we’ve got all sorts of sources of building up good and credible policy.

“For me, what matters most is who’s the best communicator. That’s what I’ve think is most important to win back the south-west.”

That is behind her support for Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw in the deputy leadership contest.

Having a non-London southern MP speaking for the party would send an “important and a powerful message that we’re reaching out to all parts of the country.”

However, she’s also backing Yvette Cooper for leader and adds: “I will be very concerned if, in the 21st century, we end up with a male leader and deputy leader.”

With her constituency a speck of red in a sea of blue on the political map, this lifelong Labourite could be forgiven for displaying a partisan steel.

We chat as news breaks that Tim Farron has won the Lib Dem leadership on the promise of returning the party to its campaigning roots.

I ask if his populist approach will make it harder for Labour to make gains in the south-west, but she takes a longer view.

“I’m pleased that another political party has elected a leader who’s going to argue the case well against the Tory party.

“Obviously I think the solution in the long run is for people to vote Labour and for us to have a good Labour government.

“But one of the ironies about the collapse of the Lib Dems in the south-west was that, with the exception of me, it benefited the Tories.”

What about the Greens? Bristol West was one of four seats where the party finished second after its candidate Darren Hall achieved the constituency’s biggest ever swing at +23.

Debbonaire admits her supporters were concerned when the BBC exit poll suggested the Greens would gain an extra seat, although she had secured a comfortable majority of over 6,000 by the end of the night.

She says the Green Party “is not uniformly progressive,” but is again generous to her local rivals, saying that “they are here.”

Taking the positives from their upsurge in support, she says: “What that says to me is that this is a constituency with very, very progressive values.”

The Bradford-raised, Oxford-educated MP’s many and varied experiences outside Parliament may be behind her consensual approach to politics.

As well as working for women’s charities for 25 years, she trained as a cellist at the Royal College of Music and played professionally for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

“I still occassionally play as a happy amatuer, doing fundraising concerts for the Labour Party and playing in a small ensemble with my mum and a couple of other people whenever I visit home in the north.”

Perhaps she might treat the crowds at next year’s Tolpuddle rally to a cello solo as well as a speech, I suggest.

She won’t commit to a performance, but the date’s in her diary.

“All I can think of at the moment is that I’ve got four long months of chemo and then an operation and then radio.

“But if all goes according to the timetable, I’ll be so fit and healthy by next year. So I’ve asked (TUC South West general secretary) Nigel Costley if he’ll put me on the slate now for next year because I really want to be there.

“It feels like there are a series of goals to work towards. You know, getting to May is a big hurdle and then getting to Tolpuddle would be great.”