Special night to celebrate the life of Burnley mum of five who died of Covid 19 is a sell out

All the proceeds from the event will be split between the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Manchester's Wythenshawe Hospital where Karen Birtwell was cared for before she died after a courageous battle against coronavirus.

A Celebration for Karen takes place on Friday, October 8th ,at the Paradise WMC in Burnley. The Timeless comedy duo will provide entertainment and guests can play Karen's Lucky Cards, an adaptation of Sticky Cards, a game she was famed for winning.

There will be a raffle and auction and an appeal is running for local businesses to donate some prizes.

A special one off 'Karen's cocktail' will be available at the bar and balloons will be released in memory of Karen and to celebrate her life.

Karen was mum to five children, Jack, Jessica, Lewis, Lauren and Ellie May, who, at the time of their mum's death were aged between 19 and six.

Karen died in Wythenshawe Hospital where she had spent the last five weeks of her life.

She was originally taken into the Royal Blackburn Hospital in February suffering from breathing difficulties.

Medics came over from Wythenshawe and Karen was given treatment on an ECMO machine, specialist equipment which pumps blood from the patient's body to an artificial lung that adds oxygen to it and removes carbon dioxide, so in effect replacing the function of the person's own lungs.

Karen was then transferred to Wythenshawe where she was later diagnosed with emphysema and Covid 19.

Originally from the Pendle area, Karen attended the former Park High School in Colne.

Karen spent most of her working life in various NHS auxiliary and care roles, including looking after the elderly at several different care homes.

Karen also worked for a time at the ENT department at Burnley's St Peter's Centre, but she had always dreamed of becoming a qualified nurse.

And last year that dream was starting to come true as she began a degree course in mental health at Burnley College.

Karen, who enjoyed socialising with her wide circle of friends, met and married her husband Peter (39) nine years ago.

The response to a fund raising page set up y Karen's former partner, Alex Catterall, to help the family was overwhelming with £2,869 raised in just three days.