Westlife’s Shane Filan urges support for Mayo Relay For Life
WESTLIFE singer and Irish Cancer Society Relay For Life ambassador Shane Filan is urging people across the country to take part in their local Relay For Life or to bring a Relay For Life event to their local community.
Among the community events across the country, Relay For Life Mayo will take place in the South Mall, Westport, on May 17, starting at 5 p.m.
Relay For Life, in aid of the Irish Cancer Society, is a 24-hour event, bringing local communities together to celebrate cancer survivors and remember those who have been lost to cancer.
Participants team up and take it in turns to walk through the day and night, with someone always on the move during the 24-hour period.
A key feature of every Relay For Life is the survivors’ lap, where cancer survivors who have lived or are living with cancer are invited to open the event with a special celebratory lap of their local Relay track.
A moving Candle of Hope ceremony is one of the main highlights of Relay For Life. Thousands of candle bags that have been personalised with messages of hope and remembrance are lit in celebration of cancer survivorship and to honour loved ones lost to cancer.
The uplifting Relay For Life event also features entertainment and fun for all the family.
Funds raised at Relay For Life are essential to enable the Irish Cancer Society to provide free, vital support services to people affected by cancer across Ireland and to fund groundbreaking cancer research.
Shane Filan, who lost his parents Mae and Peter to cancer, said: “I’m so proud and honoured to be an ambassador for the Irish Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.
“I know first-hand the devastating impact cancer can have on a family, as I lost my mum and dad to the disease just nine months apart. I miss them every day, but I know they would be incredibly proud of my work today with Relay For Life.
"It's so vital for people whose lives have been touched by cancer to have an outlet to come together and get support.
“Relay For Life is a magical, moving event that celebrates our cancer survivors in our communities, it helps give solace to those who have lost loved ones. Most importantly, it gives hope. Hope for better services, hope for better treatment, and hope for a future free from cancer.
“I’m urging everyone to get involved in their local Relay For Life, or to bring a Relay For Life to their own area if they don’t already have one, so everyone can experience how moving, uplifting and powerful this special event is.”
Sinead Gillespie, head of fundraising at the Irish Cancer Society, said: “People across the country have always enthusiastically supported Relay For Life, and in doing so they generously support the vital services provided by the Irish Cancer Society to ensure that no one in Ireland has to face cancer alone.”
Information or register a team for the Mayo Relay For Life event in Westport on May 17 here.