Orphan's memorial to skin cancer death parents
AN orphaned teen- ager whose childhood was destroyed when both parents died of cancer is challenging people to join her in the battle against the disease.
Ainlee Raines (19), of Tennyson Avenue, Lynn, was just 17 by the time both her mum and dad died from sun-related skin cancer.
Now the beauty therapist has entered next month’s Run 10k for Cancer Research event at Sandringham in memory of both her parents, and is hoping her tragic tale will encourage others to do the same.
Cancer first struck Miss Raines’ life at the age of only eight when her mum Karen Raines died of skin cancer. Nine years later – the day after completing her first 10k run at Sandringham in memory of her mother – she discovered her father Michael Raines had terminal skin cancer too.
He died just two weeks later.
Miss Raines said her mother’s cancer was caused by the sun, and her father worked as a builder – often with his top off in the sun.
As a result she now regularly has her moles checked by the doctor and wears a factor 50 sun lotion.
“I definitely don’t sun bathe as much as I used to and my sisters are the same. We’re a lot more careful,” she said.
Miss Raines, her younger sister Jessica and older brothers Fred and Jamie, were sent to live with their grandmother while their mother was ill as she did not want her children to see her dying.
“We were all too young to really grasp what was happening. I couldn’t really deal with it all,” she said.
“My dad was separated from my mum but I remember him and my half-sister Tonia coming to school to tell me and my brothers that mum had died. We then had to go to my younger sister’s school to tell her.
“I also remember all four of us having to sit in the front row at mum’s funeral.
‘TOO SCARY’
“I didn’t want to go because I found it all too scary.”
The children returned to the family home in Hunstanton where they lived with their father, who later developed recurrent malignant melanoma which spread to his lymph nodes, liver and spleen.
“We knew he had moles removed from his back and a lump removed from under his arm, but he didn’t talk about it to us younger ones.
“It was only when he started being sick and passing blood that we realised something bad was going to happen.
“I did my first 10k run for Cancer Research in 2006 on Jessica’s birthday.
“The day after the nurse came to the house and told us all that dad only had two weeks to live.”
Unable to cope with the trauma, Miss Raines spent a lot of time at her boyfriend’s home during her father’s final two weeks, only seeing him when he was on his deathbed.
After his death, the family house had to be sold to pay off debts and the orphaned children were separated.
Though living apart, all the children remain very close and continue to support each other since the loss of their parents.
Miss Raines has since rebuilt her life by completing a college course in beauty therapy and beginning work at Vanilla hair and beauty salon in Reffley, Lynn.
She is taking part in this year’s 10k run on Sunday, September 28, with her brother Fred (20), half-sister Tonia (31), her boyfriend Aaron and Aaron’s dad Philip.
She said: “Cancer blew apart my family. Joining the Sandringham 10k is a great way to stop other families from going through the same thing by raising money for Cancer Research UK’s work to find new ways of preventing, treating and curing the disease.”
This year, Cancer Research UK is hoping 50,000 will run 10k nationwide and raise just over 5 million to help fund its research.
The fifth annual event at Sandringham will see around 1,200 people taking part, with a fundraising target of 72,000.
People can enter the race by logging on to: www.run10k.org/local or by contacting 0871 641 2401.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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