A COUPLE who lost their daughter to cancer last year are to stand for election for Wigan Council in her memory.

Ian and Irene Franzen are two of five members of the same family who will contest seats for the Community Action Party (CAP) in a bid to carry on daughter Helen's environmental work.

Helen, aged 24, of Lowton, was a keen ecologist. After gaining a BSc honours degree at Leeds University, she undertook voluntary work protecting turtles in Crete and later helped at Pennington Flash.

Ian will stand in Lowton East and Irene in Leigh South. They will join Ian's brother, party leader Peter Franzen, who is a candidate in Golborne Lowton West, and his daughter Natalie, a graduate in bio-medical sciences, who is standing in Leigh East. Helen's brother, Ian Kristian Franzen, has also put himself forward for Leigh West.

Peter said: "All the family share the same concern for the environment and conservation. We will fight to stop building on green fields. We all believe in democracy and will battle to advance the cause."

All 75 seats are being contested on Wigan Borough Council -- three more than exist at present because of ward boundary changes. The outgoing council was represented by 59 Labour councillors, five Community Action Party councillors, three Lib-Dems and three Conservatives. Two seats were vacant.

"Being a councillor is a labour of love."

Also standing in Leigh East is Keith Cunliffe (Lab), Derek Davies (Con), Brian Jarvis (Lab), Peter O'Connell (CAP), Federick Brown Walker (Lab) and Stuart Winstanley (CAP).

The other candidates in Leigh West are Daniel Phillip Burrows (CAP), Richard James Moreton (BNP), Barbara Jarvis (Lab), Yvonne Lavelle (CAP) , Peter Richard Charles Smith (Lab) and Myra Joan Whiteside (Lab).

In Leigh South, there is Kevin Anderson (Lab), Stephen Elison (CAP), John David O'Brien (Lab), Andrew John Oxley (Con), Charles Rigby (Lab) and Janine Susan Solinas (CAP).

There are eight other candidates in Lowton East. They are Christine Margaret Cottarn (Lab), James Nelson Grundy (Con), James Atherton Lavelle (CAP), Jennette Leigh (Con), Lynne Liptrot (Lab), Alan James Lowe (Con), Jonathon Miller (CAP) and Eric Jospeh Waterworth (Lab).

In Golborne Lowton East, the other candidates are Gerard Martin Bretherton (Lab), David Kelly (Lab), Martin King (Lab), Rostna Oxley (Con), Peter Antonio Solinas (CAP) and Kevin Vincent Williams (CAP).

She became a Pennington Ranger and was looking forward to becoming a permanent ranger at Haigh Hall when she died.