FOUR East Lancashire women who have overcome personal adversity to hit the heights in community work and sport have been shortlisted for a top award.

They have been nominated for the 1998 Lancashire Woman of the Year Award to be announced next week.

The award ceremony will be attended by over 100 guests and nominees from throughout Lancashire.

The nominees include a Sabden marathon runner, a campaigner for pensioners' rights from Rossendale and two charity fund-raisers from Blackburn and Bacup.

Kitty Garnett, of Crowtrees Road in Sabden, is a well-known marathon runner and keep-fit teacher, even though she is well into retirement.

Kaye Ratcliffe, of Bacup, is a Down's Syndrome sufferer who raises cash for the Rossendale Hospice and helps out at local luncheon clubs.

Barbara Bancroft, of Billinge End Road, Blackburn, started raising funds for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer organisation after her sister-in-law died of the disease and she subsequently suffered it herself.

Susan Troughton, of Loveclough, Rossendale, campaigns for the restoration of services for the elderly.

Despite being a chronic arthritis sufferer, she also raises funds for Rossendale Hospice and Macmillan Nurses.

The winner will be announced at a special ceremony at the Gibbon Bridge Country House Hotel in Chipping on Wednesday.

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