A CANCER scientist and a nurse who have both faced their own fight with the disease launched Scotland’s biggest Race for Life yesterday.
More than 7300 people turned out for the 5km and 10km courses in Glasgow and were seen off by Dr Zuzana Brabcova, who is battling cancer for the second time in just over a year. She also tackles the disease at her workplace, the Cancer Research UK Glasgow centre.
Brabcova was joined by Glasgow nurse Gaynor Williams-Hamilton, who lost her 52-year-old husband, Muir Hamilton, to throat cancer just three months after she had completed treatment for breast cancer. The 54-year-old, who works at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, previously raised more than £2000 for Cancer Research UK by taking on her first Race for Life Glasgow in May 2016. At that event, her husband was there to hug her at the finish line but a month after she completed her treatment in September 2016 he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He died shortly afterwards.
“Muir was the love of my life and I miss him every single day,” she said. “We were married for almost 18 years and shared so many adventures together. I couldn’t ever have imagined life without himso my Race for Life is dedicated to him and in memory of all those who have lost a loved one to this disease.”
Brabcova, 32, who is a data scientist studying how leukaemia cells use energy and nutrients to survive, was devastated in November last year when a scan showed her cervical cancer had returned and spread to her lymph nodes. She has been through six more rounds of chemotherapy and is waiting for further treatment.
“Today has been an emotional but a positive day too,” she said yesterday (sun). “I want to do everything I can as part of a team of scientists to stop others from suffering.”
Jennifer Muir, aged 18, of the Kirkintilloch Olympians running club was the first person home completing the 5K course in just 21 minutes. She was running in memory of her grandmother who died of throat cancer.
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