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‘Finding faith again changed my life’ ✷
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After losing her mum as a teenager, Karen Openshaw tells how Christmas has special meaning for her – and why she’s committed to helping young people By Carole Richardson or years Karen Openshaw hated Christmas and New Year. She didn’t think much of God either. “I didn’t enjoy it from the ages of 15 to 32,” admits the 50-yearold chaplain and lay preacher. She can be precise about the dates because they mark two of the most important events in her life. In her mid teens, Karen’s beloved mum Margaret died, leaving her and her two younger brothers home alone in Bolton. Her father, who had been divorced from her mother since Karen was 11, lived abroad. “I thought the world of my mum,
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