A WIDOW who suffers from cancer today appealed for more people to become volunteers to bring pleasure into lives like hers.

Mary Twigger's plea coincides with national volunteers week, when the work of unpaid helpers is being celebrated across the country.

The 68-year-old, of Chiltern Avenue, Burnley, has been visited weekly by a volunteer befriender for the last six months through a scheme run by Lancashire Social Services.

The scheme currently has 120 volunteers registered in East Lancashire, but more than 100 more people are still on a waiting list for help.

Most of Mary's time with her volunteer is spent enjoying drives out into the countryside, a pastime she can no longer enjoy alone.

Mary, who has suffered breast cancer twice and now has secondary tumours, has three children and two grandchildren who all lead busy lives.

She said: "My children all have lives of their own and although I see a lot of them I do spend a lot of time of my own.

"I really look forward to my visit because Tom, the volunteer, and I have formed a real friendship.

"I can get a taxi to the supermarket, but he sometimes takes me to get heavy things and also we get out into the countryside to places I don't get to go to now I can't drive any more.

"The outings make a real difference to me."

"It would be great to get more people to come and help in this way because they do get an allowance and an hour isn't much out of somebody's life to give someone else a bit of pleasure."

Lancashire Social Services will hold volunteering information days at Burnley Central Library on June 10, 11 and 12.

For more information call 01282 470190.