Haslingden parents' plea for cancer awareness (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Haslingden parents' plea for cancer awareness

12:00pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News

BILL and Sue Ramsbottom have marked what would have been their son’s 21st birthday campaigning for greater awareness of lymphatic cancer.

Allan Ramsbottom, a former pupil of Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Blackburn, displayed no symptoms of the condition before he died in October last year, only a week after being admitted into hospital.

Now Bill, Sue, and sister Kerry, from Haslingden, want to share his story in the run up to Lymphatic Cancer Awareness Week, which begins on Monday.

Bill said: “I know there’s nothing I can do in respect to my son’s death to bring him back, but if I can help others by making them aware of lymphoma it will be some form of legacy for him.”

Bill said he, his wife and daughter held a picnic yesterday to mark Allan’s birthday, followed by a few drinks with Allan’s friends – because that’s what he would have done.

He said his son showed no symptoms of the cancer and rapidly deteriorated.

Friends and family have held fundraising events since Allan’s death collecting around £18,000 for the Lymphoma Association – a charity which supports those with the disease and raises awareness of the symptoms.

Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, is the most common cancer in the under 30s, and the UK’s fifth most common cancer.

More than 75,000 people in the UK are living with lymphoma, with 14,000 people diagnosed every year.

The most common symptom is a painless lump or swelling, often in the neck, armpit or groin. Other symptoms include excessive sweating, fevers, unexplained weight loss, unusual tiredness, persistent itching, a cough or breathlessness and abdominal pain or diarrhoea.

For support or advice, visit www.lymphomas. org.uk.

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