Lancaster landmarks to get purple makeover

So what on earth has happened to the Ashton Memorial?
How the Ashton Memorial might look if it turned purple. Original photo by Bob Clare.How the Ashton Memorial might look if it turned purple. Original photo by Bob Clare.
How the Ashton Memorial might look if it turned purple. Original photo by Bob Clare.

This is an artist’s impression of how the Williamson Park landmark might look when it ‘turns purple’ next month.

The Memorial looks set to be lit with purple lighting to mark Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month (PCAM) in November.

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Coun Jon Barry, mayor of Lancaster, has been asked by the charity to help raise awareness of the disease by taking part in the Purple Lights for Hope Campaign.

This aims to put a spotlight on pancreatic cancer and highlight a disease 
many people know very little about.

One person dies from pancreatic cancer every hour and 8,800 new pancreatic cancer cases were diagnosed and 8,700 deaths recorded across the UK in 2012, making the disease the country’s fifth biggest cancer killer.

It has the worst survival outcome of any of the 21 most common cancers with less than 4% of patients surviving five years or longer.

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Those shockingly low survival rates have remained virtually unchanged for the past 40 years and,whilst mortality rates for most cancers are falling, those for pancreatic cancer are rising.

Lancaster City Council plans to light up both the Memorial and the City Museum on November 1 at a total cost of £200. The Purple Lights for Hope campaign began in 2014 when more than 60 landmarks nationwide were lit with purple , the official colour of the Pancereatic Cancer UK charity.