A TERMINALLY ill grandmother has become a Buddhist nun.

Marsden woman Brenda Carson is now Kelsang Jorlam. Kelsang means nun.

The 56-year-old mother- of-five left her village flat to move into Huddersfield's Vajrapani Buddhist Centre.

Divorcee Jorlam, who has five grandchildren, now spends her days gardening, housekeeping and meditating at the centre in Belmont Street, Highfields.

She is suffering from fibrosing alveolitis, a progressive lung disease that leaves her breathless and cold through lack of oxygen.

Doctors do not know how fast it will worsen.

But Jorlam says: "I don't dwell on it. I have so much going on. I feel much better than I did a year ago - and I have never been happier.

"But I'm still looking for enlightenment. Will I get it? Definitely. Whether it's in this life or the next . . . "

She adds: "I've been an artist, a biker, a photographer, a dropout.

"I was a bit of a hippy before I became a nun. I didn't have a TV and I wasn't into material things like money and possessions. They don't make you happy.

"I was teetotal, I'd been married and had kids. So I wasn't giving anything up."

She continued: "I keep no photos from my old life. It's as if it happened to someone else."