SKIN cancer sufferer Joyce Ball is well on her way to recovery - thanks to a magical new lamp which has lightened the treatment load.

The Atherton mum tracked down the revolutionary machine while she was on holiday - in America.

And she became a guinea pig as one was put through its paces at the Christie Institute.

Now she can't sing the praises enough of the revolutionary Paterson PDT lamp, which zaps cancer cells without leaving scars.

Joyce, of Morley Street, believes she paid the high price for sunbathing in her younger days.

Light skinned and light haired she first spotted a red, dry patch on her shoulder five years ago. It started to weep and wouldn't go away

Doctors said it was probably because of a bra strap rubbing, but when other rogue ulcers appeared on her back she was sent to Wigan Infirmary and then onto Christies.

Joyce has undergone both painful surgery and laser treatment over the years, but while she was in Philadephia friends told her of an English doctor working in the States, and he gave her a colleague's address in Leicester. She saw him, and was informed that Christie's were trying out the new lamp.

She was referred to the Institute and has been undergoing treatment for 18 months.

She said: "You have this treatment and you can bathe within 24 hours. Previously you had to wait for six weeks.

"When I first discovered I had cancer I was told it was not life threatening, so I didn't worry. There's not much use worrying is there?

"It was a bit of a shock, but I had confidence in what the doctors told me.

"I first heard about the lamp on a TV programme, but it took a while before I tracked it down. It's magical for sufferers.

"I put my cancer down to the sun. I always holidayed abroad from the children being very young, and I used to blister and not bother.

"Now I can sit out in it for a while but I have a special umbrella. My daughter, Lesley, really watches herself though.

"The cancers have all more or less gone now, but the doctors will continue to keep an eye on me.

"I would recommend this lamp to anyone, it's made treatment so much simpler." Magic of the lamp

cured my cancer