What the doctor ordered

Jul 12 2007 by Emma Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

After a family tragedy and severe illness, our Mother’s Day prize was just the tonic for Pat. Emma Johnson reports

WHEN you are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, vanity naturally can go out of the window.

Facials and manicures are of no concern as you battle your way back to health. Throw in a family bereavement, a full-time job and a family to look after and it is perfectly understandable that how you look drops significantly down the priority scale.

Mother-of-two Pat Cross had to deal with all of the above last year when her father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, then she herself was found to be suffering from non-hodgkins lymphoma (a form of cancer which affects the white blood cells) in the spring.

Sadly her father lost his life to the disease but Pat, a civil servant, was given the all-clear last October. Pat’s courage in the face of adversity inspired her daughter Jennie to enter her in our Mother’s Day makeover, in connection with Utopia Retreat beauty salon, earlier this year, of which she was the clear winner.

Now, a few months and more than £1,500 worth of beauty treatments later, Pat is a changed woman. She says not only does she feel younger but her confidence has soared.

“I have never won anything like this before,” says Pat, who has just returned from a holiday in America where she got to show off her new look.

“Before I had cancer I always used to have my hair done and my legs waxed but I have probably had about three manicures in my life and I have never worn false eyelashes.

“This whole experience was fantastic.”

Pat, who admits she has received a number of compliments from colleagues on how well she now looks, says although it was less than a year ago, when she looks back on her illness it is almost as if it were a bad dream.

“My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in January last year, then I found a lump just before Valentine’s Day,” recalls Pat who, to celebrate her remission, threw a thank you party for friends and family at Christmas which raised funds for the Roy Castle Fund.

“They said it was non-hodgkins lymphoma and then they found more lumps so they decided to give me chemotherapy to stop it from spreading. My dad died in May, but my treatment continued until August before I was told I was in remission in October.

“When I look back now, it is like it happened to someone else.”

Pat’s daughter Jennie, 27, says she entered her mum in the competit- ion as a way of showing how proud she and her brother Alan, 24, were of her.

“She has always been a great mum and a great friend as well and when she was sick she just got on with it. She was really strong and the way she dealt with it made us feel better,” says Jennie, a trainee psychologist.

“When I saw the competition I just thought it would be a really nice way to say thanks and tell her how proud we are of her.

“The makeover has really boosted her confidence, she seems really different and she looks fantastic!”

emmajohnson@dailypost.co.uk

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