Patsy Calton

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Patsy Calton

Patsy Calton (19 September 1948 – 29 May 2005) (born Patricia Yeldon) was a British politician, and was a Liberal Democrat politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Cheadle in Greater Manchester.

She was first elected at the 2001 general election, with a 33 vote majority over the sitting Conservative MP Stephen Day. She held her seat in the 2005 general election with a majority of 4,020 votes over Stephen Day, despite being too ill with cancer to campaign personally. She died less than four weeks later, although she was sworn in as an MP five days before her death. She also stood at the 1992 general election and the 1997 general election. She had previously been a deputy leader of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council.

Calton was born into a Royal Air Force family and as a result moved around frequently as a child. She began her schooling in Egypt while her father was posted there but most of her school days were spent at Wymondham College in Norfolk.

After her degree in biochemistry at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), she took a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the University of Manchester.

Either side of a career break while bringing up her family, she taught Chemistry in comprehensive schools in Cheshire. In June 2001 she left teaching for Parliament, her last school being Poynton High School, where she was head of Chemistry and head of Legh House.

In Parliament, she was a Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on Northern Ireland and on health, and was also chair of the all-party group on breast cancer.

She was married to her husband Clive in 1969. They had three children, Libby, Andrew and Catherine and one grandchild. The family lived in Bramhall for most of their married life and all the children were educated at local schools — Pownall Green Primary and Bramhall High School — and then at Stockport's sixth form colleges.

Calton was first diagnosed with breast cancer following the 1997 election campaign. She recovered after she had undergone a double mastectomy the same year. She ran the London Marathon four times to raise money for the Macmillan Nurses charity. In February 2005 the cancer recurred, this time in the spine. She died on 29 May 2005.