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The Shearer family

Northern regional winner

The Shearer family

From: Aberdeen, Scotland

Out of the heartache of losing her grandma, Irene Thompson, 61, to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2000, Angie Shearer, 24, and her family have raised an enormous amount of money for charity through organising events.

Angie, her mum, Irene, 46, dad, James, 47, brother, Alan, 22, and grandmother, Betty, 69, plus 
12 other family members have voluntarily run the annual Cancer Research Relay for Life in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, for the last five years. To date they have raised over £100,000 for Cancer Research UK.

The family form the basis of the committee that organises the 24-hour event, which starts with 
a special lap completed by those who have survived cancer.

Angie, who works full-time as
a PE teacher at a high school, was the first member of the family to become involved with the event after she took part in the Relay with a team of friends in 2001.

After raising £1,300 that first year, Angie, along with her mum, Irene, and aunts, took part again in 
2003, raising a further £2,500. The following year Cancer Research UK asked Angie to take over the organisation of the event. She enlisted the help of her parents and, ever since, the family's involvement has grown, with more family members joining them every year.

As chair of the Relay for Life committee, Angie oversees all the organisation and drives the recruitment of teams and community groups to the event. Each of the other family members have also taken on key roles of responsibility. Her dad, James, deals with logistics, and her brother, Alan, organises entertainment, while her cousins, Claire, 29, and Diane, 20, look after accounts 
and cancer awareness. Aunt, Yvonne King, 47, and cousin, Susan Morrison, 24, arrange the Candles 
of Hope ceremony, during which people can light a candle to remember a loved one they have lost to cancer or celebrate their survival from the disease.

"Since we became active in organising Relay for Life in 2004, the event has just snowballed," says Angie. "At first it was just me, Mum, Dad and a few aunties, but now almost everyone is involved, from my great aunt, to my grandma, to my young cousins.

"I couldn't have even begun to think about organising the Relay without the family's support. Everyone's enthusiasm is fantastic.

"Some families just get together for weddings or funerals but our family gather for Relay for Life, as well as committee meetings and other fundraisers we hold.

"It's an amazing way to remember our granny but, ultimately, our aim is to raise enough money to really contribute to Cancer Research UK and help more people survive."

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