A Liverpool widow has vowed to carry on fundraising to help beat cancer as three generations of her family have been struck by the disease.
Pauline Roberts, of Crosby, has hosted an annual Macmillan coffee morning for the past 22 years that their World’s Biggest Coffee Morning fundraiser has being running.
Her struggles with the disease began when she was just 17 when her father died of kidney cancer. And after being happily married for 43 years, her husband Peter died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65.
Pauline’s son, Mark, passed away at the young age of 31 due to a heart attack, while his wife, Judith, has since had two episodes of mouth cancer.
Pauline, 77, said she is grateful for the help given to her family by Macmillan Nurses and is happy to raise funds for the cause. She said: “When I consider the cost of the treatment that Peter must have had, I want it to benefit others and I do it for Judith particularly.”
Her daughter, Elaine, is also working to try to help defeat cancer as she works for Macmillan in Devon as a fundraiser.
Now retired, Pauline was a food technology teacher in Everton and the Sefton area. This year she raised £375 for Macmillan. She said: “It’s only a small fraction of the overall money raised. It’s just to keep the momentum going that I do it.”
Two of Pauline’s good friends also died of cancer. She said: “That’s why I make the effort and it’s not a great deal of effort really to do a coffee morning, but you feel as though you’re doing something to help.
“I like the feeling that it’s payback time for me. I might feel tired but I’m happy just to do something.
“Over the years I’ve worked in raising funds whether it is in church or school and I suppose it’s just a way of not being selfish. In some respects it’s my belief in Christianity and treating your friends and neighbours and fellow beings as family.”