Towering leap for charity

In front of TV cameras, Angela Latham hopes to overcome a recent setback in her own treatment to raise money for other sufferers.

Angela, 35, and her husband Paul, 33, of Bathurst Avenue, will be among 50 volunteers - including TV celebrities - aiming to do a commando slide from the top of the 518ft Tower to the Promenade.

Aided by the Royal Marines, the event will help the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust set up a databank of potential donors.

The only problem is it has to take place after midnight and will go on until about 7am.

"That's because we'll be sliding down over the tram tracks and the trams don't finish running till 12.30am," explained Paul.

"I'm due to go down at about 4.30am and Angela between 6.30am and 7am, with a celebrity, hopefully with one of the Gladiators which we hope will be screened on breakfast TV."

Organisers have confirmed Warrior, one of the Gladiators, will be taking part in the stunt.

Paul, a Blackpool Council joinery foreman, and Angela, an Iceland cashier, have already raised sponsorship of £2,500, including £1,000 from Country Larders.

Angela's illness became national headlines when her sister Susan Squires said she could not overcome her fear of hospitals to donate her own bone marrow to help her.

Finally the publicity brought offers for Susan to undergo tests at home.

Now the sisters' rift is healed but, sadly for Angela, the tests have shown their bone marrow is not the perfect match everyone hoped for.

"We're now waiting to see the specialist in Manchester to decide what's going to happen," said Paul.

"It's great that the sisters are talking again as though nothing had ever happened between them, but now there's this complication it is hanging over us, and it's been very hard for Angela."

Anyone wanting to offer sponsorship can contact the couple on 304451.

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