Welcome to Yorkshire

Gilbert Symes makes the Yorkshire Day declaration,with the Ammon Wrigley statue behind

A BRAVE mum battling against cancer took centre stage yesterday with a song in her heart . . . for Yorkshire.

Nicola Jeffery-Sykes revealed she adapted her self-penned tune which she first sang at an audition for “Britain’s Got Talent”.

The song — “Live My Life in Yorkshire” — received praise from the judges even though the 56-year-old did not appear in the televised heats.

But yesterday Nicola, a doctor in business science who lives in Uppermill, revelled in enthusiastic applause when she included the song in a medley at Saddleworth’s Yorkshire Day celebration and country fair.

Nicola, who also suffers with asthma, began treatment for cancer in 2009.

She returns to The Christie later this month for a double mastectomy backed by chemotherapy treatment.

Earlier, at a ceremony in Uppermill to mark the event, the white rose flew high as 50 people heard the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity read by Gilbert Symes at 11.39am — marking 1,139 years since Yorkshire was created.

Saddleworth Parish Council chairman Enid Firth is from Wakefield but has lived in Saddleworth for 15 years. She placed a wreath of white roses around the neck of the statue of famous local poet Ammon Wrigley.

She said: “This is a day that reminds us whatever the officials in Whitehall say is best for us, we do not wipe out years of history with the stroke of a pen.

“I am proud to be called a true Yorkshire lass.”

Uppermill Band entertained and there was a recital of Ammon Wrigley’s poems with the crowd joining a rousing rendition of the Holmfirth Anthem.
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