LEADING East Lancashire Liberal Democrat Gordon Lishman has been given the all-clear from prostate cancer.

The 67-year-old Burnley resident revealed he was receiving radiotherapy for the potentially fatal disease at the Blackburn General Election count on May 7 where we has the Liberal Democrat candidate.

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Mr Lishman said: “I have been given the all-clear. I am very happy and very pleased.”

Mr Lishman, a former director general of Age Concern and failed Pendle Parliamentary candidate in 1983 and 1987, is married to senior Burnley borough Lib Dem councillor Maggie Lishman and has three children and and five grandchildren.

He said: “It has been a harrowing and stressful year.

“This time last year as I was setting off for a holiday in Catalonia I had just been diagnosed and was waiting to find out if it had spread.

“Thankfully it had not and I have been successfully treated on the NHS.

“The treatment at the Rosemere cancer centre in Preston, in particular, has been excellent.

“The all-clear is a great relief to me, my wife Maggie and my family.

“Now I am fit and well and in the clear I have some plans to help revive the Liberal Democrats in Blackburn.

“I have been talking to the party’s group leader on the borough council David Foster about this.

“Having fought the seat, I am not giving up on Blackburn and the party.

“Nationally our membership is growing fast but we have to clear the debris from the coalition.

“Other than that, my wife and I are planning some travelling abroad.

“We are going to Sicily later this year and hopefully India early next year.”

Mr Lishman came fourth in the May 7 poll after fighting the campaign in between weekly visits to the Royal Preston Hospital.

Mrs Hollern, who won Blackburn for Labour at the election, said: “This is fantastic news. I am really pleased for him and his family. It took real commitment to his party and politics to fight the election with that going on. He was very brave.”

Cllr Foster said: “This is really good news.

“I am delighted that Gordon will be helping us rebuild the Liberal Democrats in Blackburn with Darwen.

“We need his experience and expertise.”