80s Night at The Gather Inn
About this Event
MacMillan Cancer support people like Claire who are battling cancer. By joining us for a night of fabulous 80s music and fun, you'll be helping provide a lifeline to people going through their own cancer journey - a great time, and a great cause.
Claire's story:
I was 47 when I heard those life-changing words, 'you have breast cancer.' I don't think I will ever forget that moment. The world just stopped, like I was watching someone else's life. This can't be right, there's no history of cancer in my family! Then - BOOM - bombshell number 2: it's treatable but not curable. I'm sorry, what? This cannot be my life. I'm a mum, a partner, I still have so much to give, and so much to live for. I'm just not ready for this.
The most horrendous and difficult few months I have ever experienced followed. The news that I would need chemotherapy. I would lose my hair, my dignity, my everything. It would be tough. It was a hard type of chemotherapy for my particular cancer, HER2+. But we had faith. We could shrink that tumour, and we would have to adapt to a new normal.
Telling my beautiful daughter was the hardest, most hearbreaking thing thing I have ever done in my life. But she took it in, and she looked after me through the hardest months of my life, all while sitting her GCSEs. I will forever be proud of her.
My partner Luke saw me at my lowest. Trying to work and hold our little family together when in reality, we were all falling apart. I will never forget that. I was sick, tired and weak - I was a shadow of who I used to be. I thought it was the end. When my hair started to fall out, we shaved it together, as a family. Strangely I felt liberated - I couldn't control my journey but I could control this. I started to embrace my new look, and my new self.
Six months of tough treatment followed. My picc line was fitted and I had to learn to live with this thing in my arm. I hated it at first, but we became friends - I named it Percy the Picc. My bloods and my treatment would go through it, and so it became my lifeline. We made it together through the six months of chemo.
And it worked. It shrank my 15cm tumour to the size of a marble. I was absolutely overjoyed. And now I'll be on immunotherapy for the rest of my life, teaching my broken body to fight and block those cancer cells from spreading. I have to be scanned every 3 months - imagine life being broken into 3-month blocks. But it's working, and I'm grateful every single day.
Through all of this, MacMillan were my lifeline. They didn't just support me, they supported my whole family. I will be forever grateful for the compassion and kindness they showed us. I don't think we could have got through it without them.
It would mean the world to me to have you all join to support this great charity. You never know when cancer will touch your life. For me, I'm still here, still fighting, still myself because of the help they provided me.
All ticket proceeds go to MacMillan Cancer Support. Thank you for supporting this fantastic charity!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 11.55
