Support urged forLoughshore walk

The fundraiser will be held in aid of the Cancer Research UK charity.

The walk is being supported by Dermot Breen and TV presenter, Claire McCollum.

Dermot has been raising funds for Cancer Research UK through a number of events over the last two years, in memory of his late wife, Jacqui, a former teacher in Greenisland Primary School.

In 2015, Dermot decided to walk the entire 1,000km route of the Ulster Way which took him around Northern Ireland raising £15,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Last year, he walked another 1,000 kms along the Camino de Santiago route in northern Spain raising well over £20,000 for the charity.

Dermot said: “The work that Cancer Research UK is involved in is vitally important and I am delighted to be able to lend my support to this event.

“The Belfast Loughshore Spring Walk is a manageable 5K along a nice gentle path, but you never know, it might also give you an appetite for more.”

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Shannon McConkey, from Greenisland, was completing a Masters in Biomedical sciences, part of which includes an internship in a university lab in Indiana, when she discovered a lump in her neck.

She phoned her dad, a GP in Carrick, who advised her to find herself a doctor. When she did so, she was told it was probably nothing serious but she would need a CT scan within the next few weeks.

Shannon said she was surprised that the results revealed that she could have cancer.

“My parents immediately flew out to America and it was following the results of a biopsy that I was given the full diagnosis - I had lymphoma.”

Shannon has just received the good news that she is now in remission and plans to graduate in the summer. She is seeking support for the Loughshore walk. Registration costs £10. To register, visit www.cancer.org/BelfastLoughSpringWalk