Teen's '15 by 15' reading challenge in memory of Burnley grandmother

Teenager Aisha Aliouane has set herself a personal challenge – to read 15 by 15, her birthday on May 12th.

Aisha’s grandmother Susan Kirkham, who worked at Lloyds Pharmacy at Sainsburys in Burnley for 25 years, played a very big role in her life, taking her and her two sisters to school, going on family holidays, and days out.

Susan was diagnosed with muscle invasive bladder cancer in February last year and had a radical cystectomy, which left her with a stoma.

Aisha's mother Karen Kirkham said: "We thought she was all clear in August when she had her CT scan but in October we found out it had spread to her liver and lungs. The oncologist said she had five years to live from her diagnosis and she was due to start immunotherapy on November 9th in Preston."

Sadly, Susan became poorly on November 4th and after seeing the GP was admitted to the Royal Blackburn Hospital. However, a few hours later she died from sepsis in the early hours of the morning on November 5th. A massive shock and very unexpected by family, friends and medical professionals alike.

Instead of flowers at her funeral, the family asked for donations for the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in her memory.

Karen added: "As a family we have close ties with the hospital. My third daughter Miriam was born at Burnley General Hospital 11 years ago with Group B strep and was transferred to Royal Manchester Children’s hospital; they didn’t think she would make it, but against the odds, and thanks to medication, she survived.

"Aisha was born with sepsis and also was transferred to Royal Manchester for hip dysplasia and my nephew has severe anaphylaxis and is being treated by the team at Royal Manchester to try to develop resilience. We owe the hospital such a lot for all the support we have had.

Since setting the challenge, Aisha has currently read two Amy Bartol books, ‘Under Different Stars’ and ‘Inescapable’ and will be reading the rest of her series as part of the fundraiser. She is currently reading Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.

"Before lockdown reading books didn’t really matter to Aisha very much, she had activities outside of school, homework and school work to do. Since lockdown however, she has not stopped reading she loves it and accesses many different genres," Karen said.

"It has cost me a fortune the past few months as Aisha has been reading a book every couple of days. However, she now has a Kindle so it is a lot cheaper.

"Aisha has also been given a very special book that belonged to her grandmother and had been given to my cousin. It is called ‘Song of the Waterfall’ by Elisabeth Kyle. That will be the last of the 15 books Aisha will be reading to complete her challenge."

Currently Aisha has raised £437.50 through an online donation page. To support her visit https://susankirkham.muchloved.com/