A 22-YEAR-OLD woman who suffered the heartache of watching her mother die of cancer has shed four stone in her memory.

Laura Walmsley, of Sarah Street, Darwen, was only 17 when she lost her mum Sandra to breast cancer.

But from that day she decided she wanted to do something in her memory and to raise awareness to help others suffering from the disease.

In May 2004 and weighing 17 stone, Laura joined a slimming club and began raising money by getting people to sponsor her in her bid to lose weight.

She has now reached her target weight of 13 stone - losing four stone in seven months - and has raised more than £800 for the Helen Rollason Cancer Charity.

Laura, who works at Graham and Brown during the week and behind the bar at the Ellenshaw pub in Darwen at weekends, said she had received lots of support. She said: "My mum died on December 1, 1999, and I just thought from that point that I wanted to do something for her on my own, a personal thing. Slimming in memory of my mum certainly spurred me on and gave me something to push for. People at work were really good and tried to help me and I couldn't believe it when I realised I'd lost four stone since the middle of May. I am carrying on with the diet, although over the Christmas period I had a few days off.

"I feel absolutely brilliant. I work seven days a week so you tend to notice the difference when you're feeling less tired. I've dropped from a size 20-22 to a size 16-18. This was just something I wanted to do for myself and I thought it would be even better if I could combine it with raising money for charity."

TV presenter Helen Rollason died from cancer in 1999 but during her illness helped set up the Helen Rollason Cancer Care Centre to offer treatment and support to sufferers.