First published in The Daily Mail, 14 November 2001
RINGO'S GIRL FACES ANOTHER CANCER BATTLE
By Mark Reynolds and Nadia Cohen
Ringo Starr's daughter is facing a second battle with a brain tumor.
Lee Starkey, 31, had successful surgery at an American hospital six years ago.
At the time, doctors said she had an excellent chance of recovery.
But she is to return to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston after tests showed another tumour had developed. It is a rare form known as ependymoma.
"It really is too bad - everyone feels for her," a source close to Ringo Starr said yesterday.
Miss Starkey, a fashion designer, has already had several tests and is expected to attend the specialist hospital for treatment soon, according to a report in an American newspaper.
The relapse comes six years after Miss Starkey, Starr's daughter by his first wife Maureen, was rushed to a London clinic to have fluid removed from her brain.
She went on to stay in Boston for six weeks where she had repeated eight-minute blasts of radiation.
She was told the tumour had been destroyed and returned home to England.
However, two weeks ago, she was back in Boston for further tests, accompanied by the 61-year-old former Beatle and his 55-year-old wife, Barbara Bach.
Last night, a spokesman for the Cancer Research Campaign said doctors would be deciding whether the new tumour was benign or malignant.
"In America this type of tumour, an ependymoma, accounts for about 6 per cent of primary brain tumours in adults and 10 per cent in children.
"The prognosis will depend on the exact position of the tumour in the brain. The speed of growth will also depend on whether it is malignant or benign."
The news will have devastated Starr, whose family seems to have faced countless health problems.
In 1994, Miss Starkey nursed her mother, Maureen during her battle against leukemia.
She became ill with the first brain tumour shortly after her mother's death.
Miss Starkey, who left school at 16, has spent her life trying to succeed without relying on her father's fame.
After a spell at drama school she worked as a make-up artist and beautician before working at a Tower Records store in London and another in Los Angeles.
