A MAN whose medical background is being investigated by police after his wife's death from cancer joined family and friends at a memorial service.

Carole LeMaistre, 42, of Blackthorn Lane, Bacup, died on January 28 after battling colon and liver cancer for several months.

She shunned conventional treatment for alternative therapy administered by her estranged husband Alain-Denis LeMaistre.

Mr LeMaistre is now being investigated by police after it emerged that he had been treating his wife for cancer but had no formal medical qualifications.

The 58-year-old, who runs a clinic in Burnley Road, Todmorden, said he wanted to keep the service low key in light of all the spotlight the family had been under.

The service was held at Trinity Baptist Church in Bacup where friends and family travelled from all over the country to pay their respects.

Carole's son Jean-Luc, 11, prepared a moving tribute that reduced the congregation to tears.

It read: "Dear mum. I will never stop loving you even though I am not with you anymore.

"You will always be in my heart and I will forever be always yours."

The Reverend Alistair Stewart conducted the memorial and said: "As a child she went to Thorn infant school. It was really good for me to be able to talk to her teacher.

"She remembered her as a quiet, studious girl who was really bright and worked tremendously hard.

"She liked nothing better than to curl up in the reading corner with a book.

"She actually passed for grammar school but decided she didn't want to go and went to Blackthorn where she was head girl.

"When she left she started working at Bacup Library and worked in a chemist where she got to know lots of people through her work there.

"She then left Bacup and went to live in Cornwall and got a job in a health food shop in Bournemouth which is where she met her soon to be husband.

"She married him on August 4, 1989, in a registrar office and then was blessed two weeks later at Christ Church in Bacup."

He said even as a child Carole always wanted to travel and her life took her travelling all over the world.

"She lived in Hawaii, a part of the world she loved and then sailed across the Atlantic to Martinique.

"She then travelled to Mexico and across the Panama Canal before travelling thousands of miles across America.

"While she was living there she was blessed with three wonderful children.

"She came back in November 2000 when many people were pleased to get to know Carole again."

Rev Stewart went on to say: "She was very gifted and creative.

"She always did wonderful knitting and needle work and could also paint, sketch and draw.

"She also loved plants, birds, animals and fish and loved walking along canals.

"She was into recycling and concerned about the environment and helped at the school when she could."

He added: "I was fortunate to have the chance of talking to the children and they told me she was a brilliant mum. They said she was kind and looked after them so well.

"She made them lovely teas and took them to Blackpool on the Pleasure Beach and on the donkeys.

"She took them to the rec to fly kites, had water fights, made snowmen and had wonderful picnics.

"Carole had a real love of life and enjoyed the simple things in life as she was a private person.

"I have no answers why a young loving mum like Carole should pass away at such a tragic young age."

Carole also leaves her two daughters Angelina, nine and six-year-old Dominque, her mum Alice and three sisters.