Teenagers

Aside

They have had a terrible press recently and it is very worrying. Even here, at the week-end, a man was found dead in the town and two teenagers are in custody.

To redress the balance let me tell you about two girls. I feel especially proud of them because they are both pupils at my old grammar school.

My school news letter tells me that both Nansi and Claire have been awarded a Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Award which is for young people who show outstanding courage when faced with serious medical conditions.

Nansi has cystic fibrosis and has to have physiotherapy before school each day and at the end of each day has to do 4-5 hours of sport. She takes 50 pills every day and another 15 pills each morning to ensure she has the right vitamins.

Outside of school she plays netball, hockey and handball for three teams and excels at horse- riding, representing Greater Manchester in dressage, show- jumping and showing classes. She spends spare time raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust has organised a staff hockey match, arranged school cake sales and street collections.

Now that she is sixteen, the CF Trust has asked her to give personal advice to families newly affected by cystic fibrosis.

Nansi was a member of one of the two netball teams that broke the Guinness World Record for endurance netball by playing for over 55 hours. Six hours before the end of the attempt she collapsed on the floor in agony and had to be carried off. However she said she could not let her team down and staggered back on and ended up on crutches for two weeks.

I’ll tell you about Claire tomorrow.