A TEENAGER who overcame two cancer diagnoses and has been in remission for two years has marked World Cancer Research Day by sharing her hope for the future of cancer research.
Eilidh Mackay, 19, from South Ayrshire, is an ambassador for Edinburgh-based charity Worldwide Cancer Research.
She spoke of her gratitude to the researchers dedicated to improving the lives of those living with cancer, highlighting the positive role research has played in both her treatment and outcome.
The charity, which works with research teams across the world to start new cancer cures, today encouraged people to join them at the “starting line” in a bid to highlight how discovery research can kick-start the life-saving advances of the future.
Worldwide Cancer Research has funded more than £200 million of pioneering discovery research in more than 30 countries to help with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The charity is currently funding 70 active research projects, including research which resulted in a clinical trial that will aim to repurpose a psychiatric drug available on the NHS as a preventative treatment for bowel cancer.
Mackay was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in June 2016, after experiencing lung pain and cramps in her legs, and then in February 2019 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
Although now in remission, Mackay’s reaction to her intense course of chemotherapy resulted in her having to be put in a sedated coma for two months with emergency surgery on her gut.
Unable to do anything other than blink when she came out of the coma, Mackay has had to relearn how to do everything. Her rehabilitation and determination enabled her to walk unaided in 2019 – the same year successful surgery went ahead to remove the tumour from her thyroid.
Mackay said: “My hope is that one day, no-one will have to go through the heart-breaking cancer diagnosis I have experienced.
“I personally feel cancer has control over us, but funding this important research worldwide will help us take back control.”
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