AFTER the sudden and untimely death of their youngest daughter, Brian and Margaret Senior decided to make it their lives' work to raise money for the Blackpool Victoria Hospital Intensive Care Unit in memory of her.

Linzie Nolan died, age 26, of a sudden and severe viral disease. For her parents, a combination of grief and the determination to make life easier for similar families led to the creation of the Linzie Nolan Memorial Trust Fund.

And next year, to coincide with the anniversary of her death, the Blackpool Victoria Hospital will open a "relative suite" adjacent to the Intensive Care Unit.

Brian and Margaret have said that amid publicity surrounding the current phase of the £21m refurbishment work at the hospital, the Linzie Nolan Memorial Fund has raised enough money to fully equip a suite with accommodation facilities for relatives of intensive care patients wishing to stay overnight. Speaking about the traumatic experience of their daughter's death, Brian and Margaret said: "When we last saw Linzie there were no adequate comfortable areas in or near to the intensive care unit for us to try and catch up with the odd hours sleep in privacy or to be with our thoughts whilst Linzie received 24 hour specialised care."

Linzie's death devastated Brian and Margaret, as it did her sister Christine Hewitt and her widower Brian Nolan - brother of the talented pop group the Nolan Sisters. The trust fund was set up in 1992/93 and raised many thousands of pounds, enabling specialised items of equipment to be donated to Blackpool Victoria.

They said that although they knew all along the massive refurbishment scheme would take many years to complete, it would all be worthwhile in the end.

Margaret said: "We have been invited to meet up with hospital managers to discuss equipment requirements for the relative suite and we feel that many local organisations and friends of Linzie who so kindly donated to to the fund will be pleased to know of their progress."

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