Team up and be united in the war on cancer

Charity volunteer Sheila Crompton and senior cancer awareness nurse Jessica Turner put aside football allegiances to unite for World Cancer Day

LUCY KENDERDINE speaks to Chadderton resident Sheila Crompton about how her life was affected when her husband Jack was diagnosed - and why she was inspired to volunteer with Cancer Research UK.

RIVAL football fans are forgetting about their team loyalties to kick off a campaign encouraging people to unite for World Cancer Day.


Manchester United fan Sheila Crompton from Chadderton, and senior cancer awareness nurse Jessica Turner, a Bolton Wanderers supporter, are always on different sides on match day.

But they are happy to band together in their current cause. The women met through the Cancer Research UK Cancer Awareness Roadshow.

Sheila, whose late husband Jack Crompton was Manchester United’s legendary goalkeeper between 1944 and 1956, has spent three years volunteering on Cancer Research UK’s North-West Cancer Awareness Roadshow, visiting towns in Greater Manchester and the North-West with nurses and volunteers to provide information on how to reduce the risk of cancer. She began volunteering after helping husband Jack through successful treatment for bowel cancer - picked up after home-screening test.

The couple enjoyed 10 more years together until Jack died in 2013 aged 91.

Sheila said: “I’ll always be grateful for the extra time I had with Jack.”