A courageous Carluke teenager who overcame cancer has been chosen to launch a huge charity celebration.
Erin McCafferty was diagnosed with leukaemia just three days before her 15th birthday.
Now that she’s been given the all-clear, she has been picked by Cancer Research UK to fire the starting gun at their 25th birthday celebratory run in Glasgow.
And she will have a very important partner at the event in May – her twin sister Nicole.
Erin, now 18, said: “I’ve just celebrated the first year of being cancer-free and it’s been the best year of my life.
“Nicole may be my little sister by 25 minutes but she’s also been like a best friend.
“I’m lucky to have a twin sister who I’m so close to. When I had my hair shaved off after I was losing it due to the side effects from chemotherapy it was Nicole who held me as we cried in the toilets.
“Cancer made Nicole and I grow up very quickly. We got through it and now if we can help other people get through it then we’ll do everything we can.”
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Erin was in her fourth year at Carluke High when she first started feeling unwell, developing unexplained bruises and fainting on the way to school.
She recalls vividly the moment her life was turned upside down on October 29, 2015, at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow after tests revealed she had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Erin endured two and a half years of treatment including eight cycles of chemotherapy in total.
Her lowest point was in May 2016 when a chest infection led to pneumonia and she was in intensive care, watched over anxiously by her parents, Yvonne McCafferty and Vincent Mooney, both 47.
Erin said: “I thought I was going to die.
“I felt so terrible. I remember even saying to my mum that if this was really it then she should just let me go.”
As Erin slowly recovered there were good days too. Her twin Nicole rallied family and friends to raise more than £31,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The twins got to meet the Britain’s Got Talent stars including Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and David Walliams and they also jetted to London to a gig where they met singer Olly Murs.
The best moment was on February 27 last year after Erin took her final chemotherapy pill and was able to ring the End of Treatment bell at hospital.
