TWO brave women who are battling against cancer joined forces at a York school to raise money towards research into the disease.

Former Olympic swimmer and swimming coach Pam Lester and Pat Brighton, school nurse at Bootham School in York, took to the water in their own inspirational version of Race for Life - a 5km race which took place at York Racecourse on Sunday in aid of Cancer Research UK.

The Swim for Life was the brainchild of Mrs Lester, 53, who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma four years ago and is set to undergo another round of chemotherapy and stem cell treatment in the next few weeks.

As she is a parent at Bootham School and she conducts her lessons in the school's pool, she said the event was a positive gesture for all those around her.

She said: "We are just saying to people, including the kids at school, that it's okay, we'll get through it, and if we don't we are going to go smiling.

"Because of our chemo treatment programme we couldn't take part in the sponsored run at the Knavesmire this year and so the idea of a Swim for Life means we can both do our bit.

"We just swam as much as we could do. Pat wanted to do 20 lengths but she did 50 and four of us swam a mile."

For Mrs Brighton, 54, who has just returned to the school on a part-time basis after undergoing a mastectomy and chemotherapy over the past six months, the event was a daunting prospect but she said the support of the school and her husband and three children helped her through.

She said: "Cancer changes you totally. I've always been an optimist but now I'm more optimistic.

"When you see all the terrible things happening in the world, there seems to be so much evil around.

"But when faced with something like this all you see in people is the goodness. That is what I will take with me, the goodness of people."

The group of ten women raised over £1,000 which will be split between Cancer Research UK and St Martin's Hospice.

Updated: 09:07 Wednesday, May 22, 2002