Edinburgh police mum with cancer separated from her sons because of Covid-19

A MOTHER-OF-TWO diagnosed with cancer has not seen her sons for two months because the risk of coronavirus means she has to “shield” at home.

Single mum Lynda Forrest, 38, from Armadale thought she had a slipped disc until doctors gave her the devastating news they had found a tangerine-sized mass on her spine and told her it was Non Hodgkin’s lymphona.

Now she is having radiotherapy and chemotherapy and sons Noah, 9, and Jacob, 7, have had to go and stay with relatives in Liverpool.

But friends have launched a crowdfunding campaign to give them all a holiday once Lynda’s treatment is over.

Lynda, who is a public order police officer, is a keen runner and has raised thousands of pounds for charity, including cycling through the night in London for cancer research.

Friend and colleague Jen Macgregor, who started the GoFundMe page, said: “It’s a real blow that what she thought was back pain and a prolapsed disc has turned out to be Non Hodgkin’s lymphona. She is still very much at the early stages in terms of prognosis and how severe and widespread it is.”

Jen, who worked with Lynda as frontline officers based at Howdenhall police station, said: “Around January she started complaining of backache. Lynda is really active, she runs half marathons and is always looking at getting sponsorships. I think she thought she had overdone it exercise-wise and pulled something in her back. That’s how it began.

“Fast-forward a bit and things were getting progressively worse. She looked as if she was in a lot of pain.

“Then about two months ago she texted to say she’d ended up in hospital because the back pain was so severe she was having numbness in her legs. They did tests and said it was not a prolapsed disc - and because there’s not a lot you can do about a prolapsed disc, she was thinking that was good news.

“But they said they had found a mass on her spine and they suspected it was cancer. Her first reaction was what about the boys?”Lynda was in hospital - first St John’s in Livingston and then the Western General - for about a month and had radiation therapy while more tests were carried out and a diagnosis reached. Now she is at home and has visits from nurses.

Jen said: “Obviously because of Covid she’s completely on her own. The boys are now with relatives in Liverpool and that’s really hard for her. She misses them terribly. This is a horrible situation. Myself and some friends and colleagues want to do something for Lynda and her boys that gives them hope and something to look forward to. We’re raising funds to send them on holiday when her treatment is over.”

Within an hour of setting up the GoFundMe page they had raised £1,000 and now it is £2,500. One friend plans to run the Edinburgh marathon for the fund, Jen says she will do a half-marathon and her son Ben, five, is planning a sponsored cycle.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/shs5tb-lynda?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1