Outlook THE festive season may now be behind us — but


promise! The courage, hope and gutsy endurance shown by


the two girls and their families is inspirational. Christmas ISIS!) saw both Charlotte and Lau ra


seriously ill suffering from cancer. Laura, now 11, was found to have leukaemia, and


Charlotte, nine, a malignant tumour. The gift of life, we arc told, is the greatest gift of


all and as a new year unfolds, neither Laura, Charlotte or their respective families would argue with that. Together they faced the nightmare that is cancer.


They fought it and won. The experience has changed all of them.


Ouflook 4


5 ..Margaret Wright visits an amazing cemetery for pets


6 ..............Getting fit for 1991 by Sally Robertson 7 .............. ................ Arts focus with Sue Parish 8,9...............Colour focus on artist Stephen Lennon


10 ....................................................... What’s On 1 1 .Gardening, Andrew Spencer on the re-birth of a gallery


12 ....................................................... Dining Out 13 ......Mick Cookson with a heart-warming story for anglers and nature lovers


14 .....Geoff Brown on the local rallying scene, Tony Thorpe bemoans the area’s lack of music success


15 ...... Ribble Valley’s industrial heritage, Duke Bar becomes Nick o’ Pendle


16... Foulridge the watershed village by Jack Whitaker


for Charlotte Slater and Lau ra I ’renlon, C h r is t ­ mas 195)0 was pure manic and the year ahead full of


Beating cancer with a smile Laura's story


VIVIEN MEATH meets our cover girls Laura and Charlotte and recounts their remarkable tales of courage and inspiration.


Charlotte's tale


JU S T over 12 months ago, Charlotte, the eldest of B a r ry and Karen S later ’s three daughters, was su f ­ fering from respiratory problems. Operations fol­ lowed in a bid to cure the d if f icu lt ie s she was experiencing.


As Charlotte, then eight,


.............Paul Wilson finds paradise over the hill from Worsthorne, Roy’s Bronte book


battled with her breathing, her paren ts remained unconvinced that every­ thing possible had been (lone. T h e ir p e r se v e ran c e


A TA LEN TED y o u n g g ym n a s t who had already been included in the North West squad, the first sign o f L a u ra ’s illness was spotted by an alert Bar­ noldswick dentist.


Laura’s parents, Les and


Sue Prenton, made a rou­ tine appointment for the


removal of one of Laura’s teeth due to problems with an abscess. The dentist refused to


remove the offending tooth until she had a blood test. Sue i/nmediately took


resulted in a barium X-ray and the discovery of a polyp which was subsequently removed. A week later the f ami I y heard i t wa s malignant. “I went straight to the


hospital in Bradford to find out as much as 1 could,” says her father. “It was, we were told, an exceptionally rare tumour. It was in her head and there was only one known case before Char­ lotte’s, so there was very little the doctors could go on. We were given a 40 per


cent chance of her coming through.” Charlotte began chemo­


therapy in St James’ Hospi­ tal in Leeds. After the first four sessions, a decision was taken to operate in a bid to rem o v e the tum o u r . Another 10 sessions fol­ lowed before surgery.


“Wo were told the sur­


gery she had would not have been attempted three years earlier. The doctors would have taken away as much of the tumour as they could and she would have had a lot more chemother­ apy. We would probably have lost her,” adds Barry.


The operation involved


intensive facial surgery. Charlotte’s parents decided from the outset to tell their d a u g h t e r w h a t w a s happening.


‘‘The only time she


became upset was when the surgeon asked her to go into a room on her own while he talked to us, and she knew she was not involved in a decision,” says her father. “We asked him to explain e v e r y t h i n g to h e r afterwards." M u s c l e t i s s u e w a s


removed from Charlotte’s stomach, inserted into her head and re-connected to her blood supply. As she grows, the muscle will grow with her.


A t 1G she wi l l have


another operation to trans­ fer more muscle into her face.


Charlotte was a regular


church attendee before ill­ ness struck and throughout her stay in hospital kept a banner above her bed pro­ claiming: “This banner over me is love!” □


Outlook is produced by East Lanca­ shire Newspapers tor the Burnley


Express. Nelson Leader, Colne Times, Barnoldswick and Earby


Times.and Clitheroe Advediser. ■ < i <


* * i *


Laura from the dental sur­ ge ry to B a rn o ld sw ic k Health Centre for the test and, later the same day, news of Laura’s leukaemia was broken to her family. By evening they were on


their way to Pendlebury C h i ld re n ’s H o sp ita l in Manchester. The blood test confirmed,


Laura was discovered to be suffering from a form of leu­ kaemia normally found in adu lts . Ch emo th e rapy began straight away as her parents, Les, who is a Brit­ ish Telecom engineer based in Burnley, Sue and brother Steven were tested unsuc­ cessfully in a bid to find a bone marrow match. T ow a rd s the end of


November 1989, a trans­ plant operation was carried out in Pendlebury using Laura’s own bone marrow and preceded by a week of total body radiation at


Christie’s. A long period of isolation


followed and although Laura was allowed home for Christmas 1989, it was a bleak prospect. Only close family and her two best friends could visit — pro­ viding they were well — and, to everyone’s amaze­ ment, Laura asked if she could return to the hospital


ward. “We spent Christmas


there. It was the only place we could mix,” recalls Lcs. “ H o sp ita l had become Laura’s second home.” By March 1990, Laura


was able to return to school. Her illness had been diag­ nosed at a crucial time in her junior school education. An exceptionally bright child, she had continued schooling in hospital as much as possible and, with her father’s help, main­ tained her gymnastic train­ ing against colossal odds, by press-ups, using weights, mats and skipping ropes. Now in her first year at West Caven High School,


Laura has quickly picked up the threads, returned to gymnastics and is learning to play the piano. □


P a r e n t s k e e p u p t h e f i g h t


“A N Y parent who goes through this will always be


involved in some way,” say Les and Barry. To that end they have launched the Trans-Pennine Chil­


dren’s Cancer Fund. In May, the two fathers are attempting a 50-mile run


from Pendlebury Children’s Hospital to St .James’ Hospital. Leeds.


Neither have ever undertaken a full marathon. Les and


Barry, self-employed proprietor of Kelbrook Fisheries, are fun-runners but will be setting out on May Gth echoing the determination and grit shown by their children. The charity has already raised £2,000, but much more is


needed if the fight against cancer is to continue. Money will be divided between the Candlelighlersj


Appeal, for a new cancer research centre at St James’ Hospital, and the development of facilities for treatment of


cancer at Pendlebury Children’s Hospital. Sweatshirts and T-shirts are available and anyone


interested can contact Barry Slater (Earby 8-134GS) or Les Prenton (Barnoldswick 815353). “If the girls can inspire other children that would be


great," say their parents. “They are enjoying life to the maximum now. We like to


think they are leading a normal life — and we are getting a huge-bbnus from it!’.


’ □ . v . ., . •


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