Skydive is thanks for saving Addingham mum (From Ilkley Gazette)
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Skydive is thanks for saving Addingham mum
9:00am Monday 11th March 2013 in Local news
By Claire Lomax
The Finlayson family (from left) Moira, Leah, Graeme and Alexander
A devoted daughter is preparing to take part in a charity skydive to raise money to help people diagnosed with mouth cancer – and celebrate her own mum getting the all-clear from the disease.
Moira Finlayson, 18, of Addingham, is taking on the challenge five years to the day that her own mum, Leah Finlayson, 48, was treated for mouth cancer.
Moira, who is studying at Bradford College to be a primary school teacher, said: “My mum was diagnosed with mouth cancer five years ago and it is her all-clear in September.
“I am doing the charity skydive from 13,000 feet on September 14 and I want to raise £25,000. Mouth cancer teams across the country do wonderful jobs of saving lives, as they did with my mum, and this money could go to the latest technology.”
Moira, who also works as a care assistant at Abbeydale Residential Home in Grove Road, Ilkley, will raise money for the Michelle Fuller Head and Neck Research Fund, set up following the death of young mum Michelle Fuller who was diagnosed with an oral cavity cancer aged just 32.
The fund supports head and neck cancer research in Bradford Teaching Hospitals, where Mrs Finlayson was treated by Jim McCaul, consultant maxillofacial/head and neck surgeon.
Moira said: “She had an ulcer on the end of her tongue. It was there for eight weeks and because dad is a doctor at Airedale Hospital he said go to the GP.”
The GP ordered a biopsy and it was then that Mrs Finlayson, a psychiatric nurse at Skipton Hospital, discovered the ulcer was cancerous. Mr McCaul carried out a nine-hour operation at Bradford Royal Infirmary to remove the tumour from her tongue, taking skin and a vein from her left arm to put on her tongue, and then a skin graft from her stomach to put on her arm.
Moira said: “I am scared of flying but I thought it was a really good thing to do and thank the doctors for saving my mum’s life. I want to celebrate mum’s all-clear and to give the doctors and nurses the new technology they need to save more lives. All my family are encouraging me and doing as much as they can to help me get sponsorship.” To sponsor Moira online visit justgiving.com/Moira-Finlayson1
