Shropshire friend backing pal in her fight against cancer

Lindsey was just 30 when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and now her closest friend Cheryl is raising money for research into the disease.

Lindsey said: "She's come to chemo with me, she's come to doctor's appointments, she's organised girly nights to cheer me up.

"When everyone else is going out, she's held pyjama nights where we can't drink.

"Even though I'm not able to do what everyone else is doing, she's made sure I don't have to sit on my own.

"I'm very proud of her, it is something she has put her heart and soul into it. She's been working very hard."

Lindsey, now 33, of Aston Way, Oswestry, is still fighting through her illness.

She said: "I had been suffering for years with severe abdominal pain and had been told it was Irritable Bowel Syndrome or stress, so as much as I was shocked to find out, it was a relief to know I wasn't imagining everything that was going on.

"At the moment I've just finished a round of chemo, but where the tumour is at the moment they can't operate because there are a lot of blood vessels so I'm sort of searching for a miracle." Lindsey says she may be able to take some trial drugs that have only ever been tested on animals before or undergo radiotherapy to further her fight against cancer.

But now, best friend Cheryl is hosting her own fundraisers to help Lindsey and others in her situation.

Cheryl, 30, will be holding a table top sale on April 6 at St Giles Church Hall, Sutton Way, Shrewsbury for Bowel Cancer UK, after finding out the charity is almost completely reliant on charity donations.

She has arranged for 26 people to set up stalls, with all the money raised for hiring tables and money from raffles also being donated.

Cheryl, who lives in Shrewsbury, said: "We have fun and a joke about it but I am there on the serious side as well."