Growing homesick, shortly after the birth of Lillian and her fraternal twin sister, Irene, the family moved back to Manchester in February 1950.

[1] In 1956, the family moved to Ealing, west London, where Lillian and Irene, then aged 7, started studying at Drayton Green School.

It was here in 1961 that Physical Education teacher Sue Gibson (a Middlesex county discus champion) spotted that Lillian, now aged 12, had a special talent for running.

She ended the season with victory in the long jump at the Southern Inter-Counties meeting, her leap of 17 ft 8+1⁄2 in (5.40 m) the best by a British junior girl that year.

[6] In 1965, aged 16, Board was a member of the London Olympiades squad that won the 4 × 100 m relay title at the Women's AAA junior championships.

She then ran 57.3 in the Southern Counties Championships, before taking fourth place in the Women's AAA senior 440 yds final in a time of 54.6, the fastest ever recorded by a 17-year-old in Europe.

[9] Board's performances at 400 m in the 1966 season earned her a place in the England team for the Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica, that August.

[10] Board firmly announced her arrival onto the international scene when, still aged only 18, she won the 400 m race in a Commonwealth v USA match in Los Angeles, California on 9 July 1967.

[11] She followed this momentous triumph with a run of four wins at 400 m in five international events, most notably securing the only victory for Britain's women (in a time of 53.7) in the 1967 European Cup, final in Kyiv on 15 September.

[12] Board began the 1968 season by winning the 440-yard race at an inter-club meeting in Brighton, her time of 54.8 comfortably inside the Olympic qualifying standard.

After winning her heat (2.05.7), she showed her huge potential in this event by running a superb 2:02.0 (the second fastest ever by a British woman), to finish 2nd to the reigning European 800 m champion, Vera Nikolic of Yugoslavia, whose time of 2:00.5 was a new world record.

Running the last leg, she came from ten metres down entering the home straight to beat her old rival Besson, who was anchoring the French squad, in a dramatic photo finish, not only winning gold for Britain but also helping to set a new world record of 3:30.8.

X-rays revealed inflammation of the bladder and her condition was initially diagnosed as Crohn's disease, forcing her to halt training and ruling her out of July's Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

An exploratory operation at St Mark's Hospital, London, on 8 October, revealed that the cancer had spread to her stomach and she was given two months to live.

[23] Seeking a cure, she travelled in November 1970 to the village of Rottach-Egern, in the Bavarian Alps near Munich, West Germany, to be treated by the controversial physician Dr Josef Issels at his Ringberg Cancer Clinic.

Adhering to his belief in non-mainstream treatments, she was placed on a strict diet of healthy food and with spring water and herbal tea as her only drinks.

[31] A talented dressmaker and designer, Board often made her own clothes, including a pink coat she wore to receive the MBE from Queen Elizabeth II in January 1970.

The other panellists were footballers George Best and Tom Finney and cricketer Ray Illingworth (the team captains were boxer Henry Cooper and rugby player Cliff Morgan, and the presenter was David Vine.)