A MUM and grandmother from Grange-over-Sands has left a cool legacy for a cancer charity, to ensure her lifelong habit of providing delicious treats lives on.

Patricia Shaw died of lung cancer last June aged 78.

In celebration of her life, family and friends donated £720 to Rosemere Cancer Foundation to be spent on equipment for the coffee shop at Rosemere Cancer Centre, the region’s specialist treatment centre at Royal Preston Hospital.

As well as Kendal's Westmorland General Hospital, Patricia had been a patient at the centre, which provides all radiotherapy for South Lakeland and Lancashire.

Her daughter Philippa Ball, also of Grange, said: “Mum lived life to the full. She was a real entertainer – the sort of person who would always have a batch of scones in the freezer so you could rock up unannounced and she’d still be able to enjoy afternoon tea with you.

“It would take us about an hour to get to Rosemere Cancer Centre, which sometimes seemed a long way, but you always knew there’d be a good, hot cuppa waiting for you.”

Now thanks to Patricia’s legacy, there will be ice cream and frozen lollies too, as her donation has paid for a chest freezer, as well as a toaster. Philippa added: “Mum loved hot crumpets and she also loved ice cream so it’s a perfect way for the money donated from her funeral to have been spent.”

As well as helping Rosemere, Philippa and her sisters Rachel Woodward, of Kendal, and Katie Dinshaw, of Skipton, gifted sponsorship money raised when Rachel and Katie took part in last year’s Skipton Triathlon to Cancer Care and The Haven in their mum’s name.

The coffee shop at Rosemere Cancer Centre is staffed entirely by volunteers and provides a free drink to all patients and their carers. It contributes around £10,000 a year towards Rosemere’s work through selling drinks and snacks.

Dan Hill, Rosemere's head of fundraising, said: “On behalf of the coffee shop, we would like to thank Patricia’s family and friends for this wonderful donation in her memory.

"Treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy can affect appetite, taste and cause a dry and sore mouth. Ice cream is a good way for patients to get calories and protein, and ice lollies can be soothing and refreshing. They also make for a great treat for staff and visitors and, thanks to Patricia, for the first time ever they are now on the coffee shop’s menu.”

Rosemere Cancer Foundation works to bring world-class cancer services and treatments to cancer patients from throughout Lancashire and south Cumbria being treated at Rosemere Cancer Centre and at another eight hospital cancer units across the two counties, including those at Westmorland General Hospital and Royal Lancaster RInfirmary.

For more, see www.rosemere.org.uk

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Photo: The coolest of legacies, Patricia’s daughters Rachel (third left) and Philippa (fourth left) are shown the freezer and toaster bought in their mum’s name for the coffee shop by managers Marion Jackson (first left) and Graham Jackson watched by Rosemere Cancer Foundation’s South Lakes area fundraising co-ordinator Julie Hesmondhalgh