Murder-fight Susan’s new battle: cancer

FIGHTING cancer . . . Susan May

Susan May, the Royton woman fighting her murder conviction, is also battling cancer, she revealed today.

Mrs May has breast cancer and has just finished a course of chemotherapy at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

While battling the disease, she also became one of the first cases featured by the Guardian newspaper’s online version, in a series called Justice on Trial.

Mrs May was jailed for 12 years in 1993 for killing her elderly aunt, Hilda Marchbank (89) at her aunt’s home in Tandle Hill Road, Royton.

But forensic evidence, including blood and fingerprints, used to convict her, has since been labelled questionable after modern scientific studies. On screen and on video, Mrs May (64) of Dogford Road, is seen with her head covered by a scarf because the chemo has caused her blonde hair to fall out.

She still maintains her innocence, four years after she was released from prison.

She maintains the murder happened during a botched burglary, and she was confronted with the horrific sight of her aunt’s body when she made a regular daily visit. Mrs May, a grandmother of five, was diagnosed with cancer before Christmas, and has had surgery, and the chemotherapy which finished a month ago.

She added: “I have been really sick. But I have had really good service at the Royal Oldham and my surgeon, Miss Maria Bramley, has been fantastic.

“Hopefully the prognosis is good, but I have been under par and feel I have had to take my foot off the pedal as far as my case is concerned.

“The Criminal Cases Review Commission is still sorting through my latest appeal, but it has been really dragging its heels.

“I also lost my CCRC case worker Dawn Buckley, who had cancer, just before I came out of prison.

“I am very tired and very lethargic, and although I am out of prison, I am not free.

“That is why I am battling this conviction, I can’t rest.”