A budding film maker is using her own experiences of loss to inspire her first professional film.

Twenty-year-old Millie Ralston’s father Andrew Ralston suffered from bowel cancer for two years before losing his battle in October 2011.

And now former Beech Hall School pupil Millie is using the tragedy in a positive way by producing and directing a short film to help raise awareness of the disease.

Silent film ‘Balloon’ is being put together by a crew of people predominantly from Macclesfield, and also being shot in locations around the town.

Balloon, a film which aims to raise awareness of cancer

In its three minute running time it tells the story of a businessman who contracts cancer which is represented by a balloon attached to his waist that slowly grows bigger as the disease takes hold.

Millie, of Moorside Lane, Pott Shrigley, said: “I wanted to channel the experience of my past into my film making and raise awareness for cancer.

“I learned many things during my father’s battle with the disease, but perhaps the most striking was how brutally unaware people are of how cancer can go undiagnosed, and how it can have massive effects of the relationships with those closest to you.

“Balloon is a three minute extended visual metaphor that offers a warming insight into the life of a cancer suffer.”

Other people working on the film include 24-year-old producer Tom Broadhead from Sutton, make up artist Gemma Hallowell from Bollington, assistant photographer Melissa Hoban and Prestbury actor Simon Ginty, who appeared in BBC’s The White Queen.

Scenes have been filmed at Bollington Medical Centre, in Shrigley Court in Bollington and on Chestergate in the town centre.

Balloon, a film which aims to raise awareness of cancer

Millie, who is studying philosophy and politics at Edinburgh University, added: “I’ve made films before but this is the first one I have written and directed.

“It’s been a really uplifting experience to make this film as we have a close crew of like-minded people and such immense support of the local community behind us,
the same support that was there for my father and
my family during his illness.”

Millie is currently negotiating with cancer charities over use of this film in their campaigns, and is using the crowd funding site Kickstarter to raise money for the project.

If you would like to donate, or find out more, go to the website at www.kickstarter.com/rojects/1697383871/balloon