{"id":131342,"date":"2025-05-25T18:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/131342\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T18:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:51:14","slug":"dawn-mackey-and-avril-campbell-two-ni-friends-in-cancer-remission-reveal-their-singing-lifeline-during-race-for-life-belfast-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/131342\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn Mackey and Avril Campbell: Two NI friends in cancer remission reveal their \u2018singing lifeline\u2019 during Race For Life Belfast event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dawn Mackey and Avril Campbell were invited stars at this year\u2019s event held at Stormont on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The event, which supports Cancer Research UK, includes 3k, 5k, 10k and Pretty Muddy challenges for adults and children, raising millions for cancer research each year.<\/p>\n

\"Cancer<\/p>\n

Cancer Research UK\u2019s Race for Life Belfast on the 25th May 2025 (Pic by Kirth Ferris)<\/p>\n

The pair, both in remission from breast cancer, sounded the starter horn to send around 2,000 participants off on the 3k and 5k courses during the morning.<\/p>\n

More than \u00a3200,000 was raised by the event, helping scientists develop new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.<\/p>\n

\"Official<\/p>\n

Official starters left to right: Dawn Mackey and Avril Campbell pictured with Stephen Keane who ran the 10k on behalf of the Rock Choir and raised \u00a32,000<\/p>\n

After serving as official starters, Dawn and Avril joined the 50-strong Rock Choir from Lisburn, led by Clare Galway, outside Stormont buildings to motivate race participants along the route.<\/p>\n

The friends say being part of the choir has helped them cope with their cancer journey.<\/p>\n

Dawn (60) from Craigavon was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2024 after a routine screening, despite having no symptoms.<\/p>\n

A retired district nurse, she said the screening service saved her life.<\/p>\n

Dawn has since had surgery, five radiotherapy sessions, and started taking tamoxifen\u2014a drug proven effective by Cancer Research UK-funded research.<\/p>\n

Discussing her journey to remission, Dawn explained she is on a mission to \u201craise awareness about early detection and screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was diagnosed with cancer I went into \u2018nurse mode\u2019 at first and tried to protect my loved ones. I stayed positive on the outside, but inside I was frightened,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank goodness for screening, as without it I\u2019d never have detected there was anything wrong. I\u2019m well now, so it\u2019s important to me to do everything I can to raise awareness about early detection and screening.<\/p>\n

Dawn added that the support around her, including using music as an outlet, helped her cope.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an amazing consultant, oncologist, breast nurse and radiotherapy team.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family supported me every step of the way while the choir gave me empathy \u2014 and most importantly laughter. Singing with the choir helped bring the joyous part of me back, and screening helped save my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt was a fantastic day at Race for Life Belfast, full of emotion, courage, tears, laughter and hope\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Music has also helped Avril, 56, from Banbridge, who will mark nine years since finishing breast cancer treatment this September.<\/p>\n

She underwent surgery, 16 chemotherapy sessions, 23 radiotherapy sessions, and later started tamoxifen medication.<\/p>\n

The mum of three said each member of the Rock Choir is inspirational and she is \u201cproud to be a part of\u201d it, adding that it is \u201cone of the happiest one and a half hours of my week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur leader Clare is inspirational as are the choir members. I\u2019m proud to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The choir performed hits including Don\u2019t Stop Me Now by Queen and Super Trouper by Abba.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, International United Ms United Kingdom beauty queen Anouska Black of Craigavon sounded the start horn for the 10k participants.<\/p>\n

Anouska, 35, said: \u201cIt was an honour to open this year\u2019s Race for Life Belfast and I\u2019ve loved cheering everyone on.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth my grandfathers sadly passed away with cancer and I know it\u2019s a disease that touches so many families. Thankfully, there are many more effective treatments out there today, making it possible for people to get through cancer but that\u2019s been made possible thanks to the generosity of people raising funds for life-saving research. That\u2019s why I\u2019m in awe of every single person who crossed the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dawn<\/p>\n

Dawn Mackey and Avril Campbell at Cancer Research UK\u2019s Race for Life Belfast on the 25th May 2025 (Pic by Kirth Ferris)<\/p>\n

Speaking after the event, Lisa Adams, Cancer Research UK\u2019s spokeswoman in Northern Ireland, commented: \u201cIt was a fantastic day at Race for Life Belfast, full of emotion, courage, tears, laughter and hope as people celebrated the lives of those dear to them who have survived cancer and remembered loved ones lost to the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cancer<\/p>\n

Cancer Research UK\u2019s Race for Life Belfast on the 25th May 2025 (Pic by Kirth Ferris)<\/p>\n

Beaumont Roykets to cycle 480 miles in 48 hours across Northern Ireland for Pancreatic Cancer\n<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSadly nearly 1 in 2 of us will get cancer in our lifetime** but all of us can support the research that will beat it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud that Race for Life has had such a positive impact. Every pound raised supports our life-saving work, which has helped double cancer survival in the UK over the last 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dawn Mackey and Avril Campbell were invited stars at this year\u2019s event held at Stormont on Sunday. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-131342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114569982012313499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}