Over the next 12 months with her family, she spent £10,850 on holidays, £15,000 on home improvements, a similar amount on new cars and £3,300 on Christmas and vow renewals.
Mrs Grogan, a charity worker, her husband Peter, a 48-year-old project worker, and their children James, 18, and Elspeth, 15, spent £44,150.
As a result the couple are struggling to support their son through university and Mrs Grogan, from Wellington, Somerset, is now having to work two jobs.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2006. A month later she had a mastectomy on her right breast at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, followed by five months of chemotherapy and three weeks of radiotherapy up to April 2007.
At this point she started spending large amounts of money, beginning with a trip to Devon for a writing course costing £400.
“The treatment was very gruelling and takes everything out of you,” she said. “It was the moment I finished it that I started treating every day as if it was my last.
“I thought it was possible I wouldn’t be around much longer so wanted to spend a lot on family things and treats. I wanted us to enjoy opportunities I thought we might not have the chance to do again.
“When we did something nice because of how I felt I needed to have something else to look forward to. I had to have another exciting thing in the future to try and take my mind off things – I do have a very anxious personality and I think the cancer and treatment made it worse.
“To help fund things we even released the equity in our house.I was behaving like a lottery winner, except I’d never won the lottery.”
The Grogans also spent £6,000 on a new bathroom in November 2007, £9,000 on a new kitchen in August 2008, £5,000 on a Fiat Panda in April 2007 and £10,000 on a Subaru Forester in April 2008.
Mrs Grogan’s spending came to an end when she attended one of her check ups and was told that she would not have to return for a year.
“When I walked out of the consultant’s room that day my sister was in the waiting room and I just said to her ‘I’m fine – I’ve been given the all-clear,'”
“The next morning I woke up not thinking about cancer for the first time in two years. Some of the things we spent money on may look a bit silly, but they were for all the family to cheer them up.
“The Subaru was something I really wanted to buy Pete because everything had been so horrible while I was having treatment.
“Cancer shocks everything, all the things you take for granted are shook to the core, the disease makes you completely question your future.”