Celebrities encourage others to Stand up to Cancer
By Ryan Hogg
A group of celebrities are encouraging Londoners for Stand Up to Cancer on October 15.
South Londoners including Charlene White and Wandsworth’s Gizzi Erskine spoke candidly of their experiences with the disease in a film for channel 4.
In London around 34,100 people are diagnosed with cancer every year.
Ms White, a TV Presenter and Loose Women panellist from Greenwich, recounts losing her mum to bowel cancer.
She said: “I remember the moment she told me she had cancer when we were stood in our kitchen, making Sunday dinner.
“Soon, my new normal became doing homework on her hospital bed with my brother and sister.
“Despite it all, mum tried her best to push through the pain and be the best mum to us that she could possibly be.
“I’m standing up to cancer because I don’t want any other young family to go through what we went through.”
London residents are being encouraged to stand up all day – or as long as they can – to raise vital money for cancer research.
Stand Up To Cancer, now in its ninth year in the UK, has raised more than £84 million, funding 59 clinical trials and projects involving over 19,000 cancer patients across the country.
Research projects funded by Stand up To Cancer include the development of new treatments that use viruses to fight cancer, clinical trials testing potentially more effective ways to deliver radiotherapy and improved surgical techniques for bowel cancer.
Other Londoners including Nick Grimshaw, Robert Rinder, Joel Dommett and Ade Adepitan will also appear in the documentary.
Lynn Daly, Cancer Research UK spokeswoman for London, said: “All of the celebrities involved in the campaign have seen the devastating impact that cancer can have on loved ones, and we’re grateful to them for sharing their personal experiences to help inspire others.
“One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, but all of us can play a part in helping to beat it.
“That’s why we’re asking everyone to Stand Up To Cancer, by standing up on Friday, October 15.”
Sign up to stand up for the day on October 15 and get a free fundraising kit at su2c.org.uk/standing-up.
Pictured top: Charlene White