MEET a new happy Wanderer . . . Christine Blease has the new job of heading the Bolton Busting Breast Cancer campaign.

And as part of her campaign to beat the unacceptable number of deaths from the illness, one of her first meetings was with Bolton Wanderers' boss Sam Allardyce, who is backing the appeal.

Premiership

Sam's team is currently number one in the Premiership and Christine now wants to see our appeal leap to number one in people's hearts.

Christine, aged 50, has been involved in various aspects of the fight against cancer and is now looking forward to making her special mark in Bolton.

She has now been appointed special fund-raiser for the Bolton Busting Breast Cancer Appeal.

Christine, a mother of two, spent 18 years working at The Cancer Research Campaign laboratories at The Paterson Institute, Manchester, where some of the country's leading scientists are based.

She worked with Dr David Scott in the cytogenetics department, where part of her work was to look at the effects of drug groupings used for cancer treatments on chromosomes.

She also did a lot of work on breast cancer and investigations into cancer and hereditary links.

Later she worked in haematology taking blood samples from both patients and outpatients: "There I came across a lot of breast cancer patients," she said.

Christine's best friend was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, but fortunately recovered.

She took a break to raise her family and run her own catering company before deciding to fund-raise to beat cancer.

As part of the highly successful fund-raising team at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, she helped raise £25 million in time for the hospital's centenary.

"I am looking forward to getting involved with the community in Bolton and making new friends here," Christine said.

Challenge

"My previous job was more as a community fund-raiser.

"In this job, I will get to meet a larger spectrum of people and do some new things -- it's a challenge!

"During my work on the Christie appeal it was surprising just how many cancer survivors I worked with and how much they all felt the need to help others.

"One of the big things I want to do is raise awareness with the women of Bolton.

"In Bolton, the breast cancer survival rate is 70 per cent, while nationally it's 74 per cent.

"Some of it is down to the fact that Asian ladies don't seem to be as breast aware.

"We would like to make all the women in Bolton breast aware."

And she added: "I know Bolton fairly well because I used to come to the nightclubs when I was younger and I still do come here shopping.

"It was exciting meeting Sam Allardyce this week and learning that he is backing the campaign.

"If we can be as successful as Wanderers are at the moment I would be on cloud nine." HAPPY WANDERER: Christine Blease heads our breast cancer campaign Ref: J2842/21