TEENAGE pregnancy is still on the increase and schoolgirls are more likely to get pregnant in East Lancashire than almost anywhere else in Western Europe.

It's an issue highlighted by the current Coronation Street storyline involving schoolgirl mum Sarah Louise Platt and baby Bethany Britney.

Lyndsey Cunliffe was just 15 when she became pregnant and 16 when she became a mother. Here she tells AMY BINNS about how she faced up to life as a gymslip mum.

WHEN her schoolfriends were opening envelopes to find out their GCSE results, Lyndsey Cunliffe was finding out what it's like to be a mother.

Lyndsey, now 21, was only 15 when she became pregnant and 16 when she gave birth to her daughter Crystal -- the same day her exam results were due.

A year earlier, she had been an ordinary Oswaldtwistle teenager -- independent-minded, keen on athletics and football and an average student at St Christopher's CE School, Accrington.

At 15, she "fell in love" with a fellow pupil and was thrilled when he felt the same way.

She said: "He was part of the in-crowd, good looking and popular. I loved him to bits."

After a few months together, it felt right to begin a sexual relationship.

Lyndsey said: "We both felt we were special to each other and that was our way of proving how much we loved each other."

They sometimes used contraception but Lyndsey said: "It was embarrassing going into a shop to buy condoms -- and they are expensive.

"I didn't know much -- by the time we had sex education at school, I was already pregnant. I thought I wouldn't get pregnant. It just happened to other people."

But soon, Lyndsey began to get morning sickness and her boyfriend went with her to Accrington's youth information centre for a pregnancy test.

She said: "When we got the result, I went numb. I thought, my mum and dad are going to kill me."

She couldn't bring herself to confess until two months later. "They were upset and shocked. We just talked about it and they were very supportive. They said it was up to me to make a decision and they wouldn't try to influence me."

Lyndsey knew straightaway she wanted to keep her baby. The relationship fizzled out, though the boyfriend continued to support her.

The next step was to tell her school. St Christopher's was willing to continue teaching her but she soon felt isolated and unhappy and found it too difficult to carry on.

She left within weeks.

Her mum and dad were with her at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, when she gave birth after a difficult 24-hour labour.

Lyndsey said: "I loved her from the first time I felt her kick. When I first saw her she was just beautiful."

But although Lyndsey loves Crystal, bringing her up hasn't been easy. She only had one full-time job for a few months, working alternate shifts at the same factory as her mum, handing Crystal over to her mum on the factory doorstep.

She has a part-time job at a pub and works voluntarily at Clayton-le-Moors youth centre but mainly lives on benefits while renting a house from her parents in the centre of Oswaldtwistle.

She said: "It's hard not being able to work, go out with my friends and do all the things a normal young person can do. I've had to grow up so quickly.

"I've had a lot of support but she's with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I can't give her things -- you always want the nice new things and I can't afford them."

Lyndsey wanted to go to college but couldn't get a place for Crystal at the nursery and she can't afford to travel every day or buy course books.

But she was still determined to succeed and has now become a volunteer at Blackburn's Brook Advisory Centre, using her experience to stop other girls making mistakes.

She's also helping run a project for young teenagers from the Audley area, showing them how hard it is to constantly look after a baby.

One of her ideas was to give each girl a raw egg to take care of for four days, never letting it out of their sight unless they paid a responsible person to take their place. She said: "We stamped all the eggs so they couldn't swap them if something happened but one didn't even make it out of the centre -- it rolled off the table and smashed."

She hopes eventually to become a youth adviser. She said: "I want to educate people about how hard it is to be a teenage mum, and how to prevent getting into the situation I did."