The People, February 27, 1994, by Carol Sarler "A Mum With the Courage To Let Her Child Die...; Cynthia Palmer-Lund Showed Great Courage in Allowing Her Daughter Erin to Die" ----------------------------------------------------------- NOBODY can ever say that they did not try. When three-year- old Erin Palmer -Lund was diagnosed as having a brain tumour, her mother Cynthia went - almost literally - to the ends of the earth to save her. Actor Tony Head helped to raise Ł 70,000 to send Erin to Texas for pioneering treatment and, for a while, it really seemed as if it had worked. The tumour stopped growing and Cynthia thought her prayers had been answered in time for Christmas, when Erin appeared to be well on the road to recovery. A week later, all hopes were dashed: Erin's condition declined once more. Medicine could offer the child longer but it could not promise better. And Cynthia made the hardest decision of her lifetime: to let Erin die - soon, and in peace. It seems like only yesterday that we all mourned that other wee toddler, Laura Davies, whose mother Fran made the opposite decision; to keep going, on and ever on, because where there was life there was hope. Fran took flak for that decision. Incredible though it seems, there were monsters out there who actually sat down to write her hate mail - just as, I fear, some others may write to Cynthia and urge her to follow Fran's lead, come what may. They will be missing the point. Cynthia has already followed Fran's lead. Both women elected to take the full responsibility for their child's remaining life and, ultimately, death. Both women shouldered a burden that they could so easily have given to others to carry - they could stand to one side, tell the doctors "It's up to you" ... and then, in their darkest hours, they could hold those doctors to blame. In their refusal to do that, both women have showed themselves to be two of the bravest souls in the world. They each speak with love and pride of the courage of their little girls. And quite right too. But today, it is the courage of those two mothers that brings tears to my eyes. Let us hope that, through their amazing strength they find happiness again some day. GRAPHIC: LOVED: Erin ----------------------------------------------------------- Bentley's Bedlam http://www.BetsyDa.com/bedlam.html This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.