In 2024, I wrote a story for The Northern Echo about how the CLS Amazons FC women’s football team won their league.
What made the story special was that two of the players – Emma Henderson and Lydia Ward – had undergone mastectomies after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Two years on, Emma has passed away at the age of 31.
My page in tomorrow’s paper is a tribute to Emma, reflecting how much she was loved by so many people.
It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to write but it’s important – not just as a tribute to a wonderful young woman but because it includes an important message about the treatment of breast cancer in young women.
Both Emma and Lydia had to fight to be taken seriously during consultations with doctors because they were told they were too young to have breast cancer.
Even as she lay dying, Emma was sending texts to The Amazons, pleading for the club to go on raising awareness.
Tomorrow’s The Northern Echo will play its part.