Published: Wednesday, 17th March, 2010 2:22pm

Largs woman was cancer campaign pioneer

Comments (0) | Print | Email

Ilse Youngman will be remembered by many people in the west of Scotland as the driving force behind the Strathclyde Scanner Campaign with its distinctive black cat logo in the early 1980s.

Born in Heidelberg, Germany, she came to Scotland after the Second World War when she married Charles Youngman of Youngman Plant Hire, based in Lanarkshire.

Together they built a successful business hiring large earthmoving equipment and diggers to many of the major contractors based in and around Glasgow at that time.

In the 1970s Ilse underwent a series of radical surgical operations as she fought against recurring cancers.

By 1980, her consultants pronounced her clear of cancer and when she asked what she could give them as a thank you - they said a whole body scanner.

At that time the technology was in its infancy and there was only one such scanner in the west of Scotland at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

The cost of £750,000 was out of Ilse's personal reach. But she committed to raising the money and engaging the support of some business colleagues, she set up the Strathclyde Scanner Campaign.

She sought and got the support of the national and local media of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Ayrshire; she spoke tirelessly to groups and organisations and encouraged her consultants to give talks on cancer and for people to be more open - as in the early 1980's there was still a taboo around talking about cancer.

The campaign gathered momentum as every type of activity was undertaken by individuals and groups - sponsored walks, haircuts, slims, fashion shows, football matches, swims, jumble sales, coffee days and simple collections from individuals, many of them anonymous.

By 1984, the scanner was operational at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride and in 1996, Ilse was delighted and honoured to be invited back to Hairmyres to officially switch on a new and updated version of the original scanner.

Sadly a short time after the completion of the initial campaign, the family business failed and Ilse's husband died of cancer.

She moved from the family home in Airdrie, first to East Kilbride, where she undertook various roles for other charities and on finally retiring, she settled in Largs in the early 1990's.

She was an active member of Opportunities in Retirement attending classes in musical appreciation, creative writing and computer literacy and a regular attender at Clark Memorial Church.

She loved walking and talking - so short walks along Largs Promenade ended in lengthy talks in Nardini's or the Green Shutters tearoom.

Three year ago, she was re-diagnosed with cancer and again she battled with the illness - still getting out and about until the early part of this year.

She was admitted to Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock on 21 February, four days before her 85th birthday and died there on 12 March.

To the end she was forever grateful to her initial consultant surgeon John Douglas and to recently retired radiotherapy and oncology consultant Hosney Yosef of the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre for what she described as an additional 30 years of life.