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The ECHO Arena is the real star so far in 2008Jan 24 2008 by Jane Haase, Liverpool Echo RINGO may not be doing himself any favours with Liverpudlians at the moment but one star of the Capital of Culture weekend certainly is. The ECHO Arena is proving to be a big hit with readers. Dorothy Cartwright from Aigburth, was lucky enough to win tickets to the opening in an ECHO competition. She writes: “I took my husband, daughter and son along with me to the event. We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening. It was fantastic to see such a wide variety of artists performing in our city. Hopefully that weekend was the start of an exciting year of culture in Liverpool. “The ECHO Arena is fabulous and I look forward to attending more events there in the coming months and years.” And Mrs J. Davies from Allerton agrees. She emailed us to say: “I took my children to CBeebies Live at the ECHO Arena and went to the Number One concert there last Saturday and on both occasions I have been bowled over by how fantastic the arena is. “Despite its size it manages to feel more intimate than somewhere like the vast MEN arena down the motorway. “One question though, why are there no mirrors in the ladies’ loos?” We don’t know Mrs D but a few ECHO staff (female, of course) have also mentioned this. We will find out and report back. OVER the years the generosity of ECHO readers has helped many families. Last year we featured the story of three-year-old Emma Clittie from Skelmersdale who has a rare and aggressive form of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. Her family needed to raise money to send her to America for treatment. Feature writer Tony Barrett highlighted the family’s plight in the paper and wrote about Emma’s website which includes regular updates on her condition in the form of her diary. Emma’s dad Stephen contacted Tony Barrett to thank him. He wrote: “We are off to America tomorrow morning for our first consultation so I just want to say thank you for the stuff you have done, it really does mean a lot. “If it wasn't for people like yourself we would not be in the position we are in now.” We wish you and your family the best of luck Mr Clittie. UNFORTUNATELY it’s brickbats as well as bouquets this week for ECHO staff. Reader Gordon Williams, who signs himself as The Penketh Pedant, wrote in to say: “Reading the ECHO, I noticed that Janet Tansley ‘poured slowly over the menu with a beer and a gin and tonic’: what a waste of beer and gin and tonic; she should have pored over the menu and disposed of the drinks in the customary fashion. “Linda McDermott a few weeks ago seemed to think that gelignite is spelt jellignite, and Pete Price reckons the spelling for recklessness is wrecklessness. “In Joe Riley’s column, never the less should be written as one word – nevertheless. “Also, the airport is at Stansted, not Stanstead; (a few weeks back).” Thank you for keeping us on our tows (joke!) Mr Williams. Little Miss Courage
Last year Emma Louise Clittie
was seriously ill with cancer and it was feared she may not even survive to
see her third birthday.
But just look at her now! The
brave toddler has endured 12 months of painful and gruelling medical treatment
including extensive chemotherapy, two major operations and a bone marrow
transplant, but has bounced back from it all.
She celebrated her third birthday in November and now looks and behaves just like any other happy three-year-old, cheerfully playing with her toys and brushing her newly grown-back hair while sitting at her Disney dressing table. After being dangerously ill and confined to a hospital bed for much of 2007, Emma Louise is at last able to enjoy the simple things in life other families take for granted, like days out with her devoted mum and dad, Sam and Stephen. Emma Louise's battle against neuroblastoma – a rare and particularly aggressive form of cancer – is not over yet, but at last she is able to lead a normal life and enjoy all the things she missed out on for so long. The family, who live in Banks Barn, Skelmersdale, are determined to remain positive about the future and enjoy the precious time they have with their little girl – their only child – while she is so well. Mum Sam said: "Emma is really healthy, full of energy, and enjoying life. She's just like a normal three-year-old – with attitude!" Emma Louise celebrated her birthday in style, being driven in a pink limousine to a princess-themed party at the family's local sports club, attended by 50 people. She was presented with a Child of Courage Award at Liverpool Royal Court in November where she got to meet celebrities like the Premiership footballer Steven Gerrard. Sam said: "Her birthday party was brilliant. We had things like a bouncy castle and face painting and everyone offered their services free or at cost price. Everyone went out of their way to make it a really special day for her. "Kerry Katona presented Emma with the Child of Courage Award and was absolutely amazing with her. "She got to meet so many celebrities there. "They all mentioned Emma when they were interviewed and said she stole the show." Emma Louise was also recently invited to see the pantomime Cinderella at Liverpool Royal Court as the special guest of Pete Price from Radio City. Sam said: "She has to go to a clinic at Alder Hey Hospital every four weeks and is still having chemotherapy, but is so well at the moment, it's wonderful." http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Little-Miss-Courage.3671920.jp Derry Mathews handed new accoladeDec 1 2007 by Nick Peet, Liverpool Echo CONGRATULATIONS to Derry Mathews who collected yet another gong this week when Radio City presented him with the 2007 Contribution to Sport award. The WBU featherweight champion received the silverware from Liverpool skipper and pal Steven Gerrard at the Local Heroes Awards ceremony at the Royal Court on Thursday. “It’s always nice to receive recognition for something you work hard for so it was an honour to pick up the award,” said Derry, who last month collected the British Boxing Writers’ Young Boxer of the Year trophy. “To be honest though, there were plenty of other awards given out on the night to nurses from Alder Hey and to young kids who have really had tough times so it was quite humbling.” Derry, like the rest of the theatre, was especially humbled by the story of Emma Clittie, a two-year-old from Skem who has been fighting a very rare strain of cancer. “Little Emma had the place eating out of her hands,” Derry added. “I’ve passed on my details to her parents and hopefully I’ll be able to get involved in some charity work for her soon.” I think the chemo is making me feel this way, I hope I feel better tomorrow Jan 18 2007 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo
The family of a little girl who has a rare form of cancer are keeping an internet diary of her struggle. Tony Barrett reports HELLO everyone. I woke up feeling ill again today but I had a nice sleep and was not sick, and I had a full feed during the night time to keep my energy up. “I was not feeling hungry all day until I got the hospital, I went in and sat down on Mummy’s knee and guess what? I was sick! All over poor Mummy but I felt better afterwards! “My feed tube came out when I was sick so the nurse had to put a new one in, it made me cry! “We still have not been told the results of my CT Scan but we will get them tomorrow. If not I will do something nasty. Only messing. I couldn’t be nasty if I tried. “When I left the hospital, we went to Nanny Dee’s and I had loads of food and goats milk. Goats milk is better for me at the moment and I love it and drink it all the time. “Am off to bed now, am back in hospital tomorrow.” These are the words of two-year-old Emma Louise Clittie, written with more than a little help from her mum and dad, in her internet diary which tells of her daily battle with an aggressive form of Neuroblastoma. Since Emma’s website was set up shortly after diagnosis, internet users have been logging on to Emma’s diary at www.babyemma.co.uk to keep up with her progress. “It’s been incredible,” says mum Samantha. “The site has had more than 4,000 hits in the last week and people have been sending us messages from places as far as Brazil and the USA.” Each and every day Emma, from Skelmersdale, tells of how she is coping with a cancer so rare that it only affects around 80 children in the whole of the UK. She also talks of the gruelling chemotherapy she has been undergoing at Liverpool’s Alder Hey hospital since December 1 and of how her family and friends have rallied around her. Most importantly, the website, which was designed by Emma’s dad, Stephen, is being used as a fundraising tool as her parents bid to raise the £200,000 it would cost to take her to America for specialist treatment. Samantha, 20, says: “Emma has been sick for quite some time. She developed a cough about 12 months ago and we took her to the doctors but we were told it was asthma. “She was being sick, had terrible pains in her stomach and also had diarrhoea and we kept on going back to the doctors and to hospital but we kept on being told she had some sort of viral infection. “At one point I cried to the doctor because I knew something was wrong but I was told there was nothing wrong with her apart from the fact she picked up infections easily. “On November 12 the pains got so bad that we took Emma to A&E at Alder Hey and a doctor found a lump in her belly. “Ever since then we have been determined to do everything we can to make her better and the website is a big part of that.” Stephen, 23, adds: “We have been told that there is an 80% chance of the current treatment not working, that’s why we’re trying to raise the money to take Emma to America. “Around one in five kids diagnosed with the illness in this country survive it and we have said from day one that even if there was a 1% chance of beating this cancer then we will grab it. “To raise such a large amount of money could take years and if we ever need to send Emma to America we would need the money there and then to go straight away. “And if we never need to send her then all the money raised would go to research into Neuroblastoma in the UK.”
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