Bradford woman battling breast cancer raises thousands of pounds for others fighting the disease

Donna Stockdill, who is a behaviour support worker at a Bradford school, was diagnosed with breast cancer in January this year.

And although it was thought that her treatment would be a straightforward process at first, as time went on ‘her path changed’ and it was found that a long road of chemotherapy and a mastectomy was ahead of her.

Donna was diagnosed with breast cancer in January

“I was told that hopefully, it would just be a lumpectomy and some radiotherapy but after the first surgery, there were still cells there. Eventually, we met with the surgeon and he said, unfortunately, it won’t be such a quick treatment plan, and as the cancer was a grade three,” she said.

But to stay positive after hearing the news, Donna decided that she wanted to help others by raising money for children battling the illness, as well as helping out a charity close to her.

So far she has raised more than £2,000 by holding a ‘brave the shave’ event where her hair was shaved off, organising raffles and through people sharing her fundraising page online.

“I just thought I need to turn this thing that was quite negative for me and my family into something positive for someone else.”

Donna and her family at the 'brave the shave' event

Donna said her friends were already raising money for two children from the Bradford and Leeds area who were fighting the deadly disease, so she wanted to join in their fundraising efforts to help their lives easier.

“My two sons have had lots of things over the years, days out, holidays abroad and we’ve got really nice memories together, and I just wanted to make sure that these families with really poorly children have got money for things like that, or to pay bills if they’ve had to be out of work so they’re not struggling.”

She held a 'brave the shave' event on Sunday to raise even more money

A cut of the money is also going to a Bradford-based charity called Muslim Friends Bradford which provides support for women who have battled the disease.

On Sunday Donna shaved off her hair as part of the fundraising efforts, but said that although she was nervous at first ‘it felt quite nice to take control of something myself.’ 

Donna hopes to continue raising money, as she has already doubled her target of £1,000.

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