A YORK mother whose bone marrow transplant helped her fight leukaemia for almost a decade is hoping to raise hundreds of pounds for research into the disease.

Lynne Burnett and her husband, Mick, are to stage a major fundraising soul night next month.

Le Meridien Hotel, near York Railway Station, is letting the couple have free use of its Event Centre on January 24.

"We are ever so grateful to the hotel for their generosity," said Lynne, 47, of Woodthorpe.

Lynne repeatedly hit the Evening Press headlines in the early 1990s with her transplant at Leeds.

The op was her only hope of combating leukaemia and an additional ultra-rare blood illness.

The transplant was a traumatic experience but proved successful, and earlier this year Lynne expected to be given the all-clear after being free of the illness for almost ten years.

But then tests revealed it had returned.

"We were devastated when we were told," said Lynne, formerly of Foxwood.

She said she was taking a new drug for the illness and would undergo a bone marrow test in the New Year.

Her husband had already been thinking of raising money for Leukaemia Research but the return of her illness had made him determined to press ahead. He decided to focus the fund-raising efforts on soul music.

"My husband runs the 99 Soul Club at the Corner Cafe, near Peasholme Park, in Scarborough, and we also run a Motown Soul Night every other month at City Screen, in Coney Street, York."

She said Mick and his Scarborough DJ partner, Ade Stelling, would feature in the event next month, along with YK Soul DJs Andy Bellwood, Nick Bielby and Steve Bradley, who were well-known charity fund-raisers in York.

The hotel's director of sales, Julia Bodmer, said it was delighted to be able to help such a worthy cause.

Tickets for the event, which runs from 8pm until 2am, cost £5. To buy one, phone 01904 709463.

Updated: 09:35 Saturday, December 06, 2003