The annual Pause for Hope service takes place later this month, providing an opportunity to reflect and remember those affected by cancer across our region.
The service will take place at 3pm on Sunday, September 24 at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and brings together those with cancer, their families, carers and friends as well as doctors, nurses and others involved in supporting them through their cancer journey. The ECHO is proud to support the service, which is now in its 25th year, and readers can now enter nominations for NHS heroes or people who have a real difference to someone diagnosed with cancer so their efforts can be recognised.
The Pause For Hope Service was set up by the founder of Roy Castle Lung Foundation, Professor Ray Donnelly. This year's keynote speaker is Dean Sullivan, who played Jimmy Corkhill in the long-running soap Brookside.
READ MORE: Heroes, carers and shoulders to cry on: powerful stories of hope in the face of cancer diagnoses
Here Professor Donnelly explains what the service to him, and why it is so important to those affected by cancer.
When I arranged the first service in 1999 in St Francis Xavier’s church, I did not know how it would be received. I was overwhelmed when the church was full and those who were there spoke so movingly of how it had helped them cope with the difficulties and stress that cancer can bring.
Praying together, singing together, listening together, lighting candles for loved ones and friends living with or lost to cancer, the mix of prayers, music and reflections moved the hearts and minds of those present giving them a real sense of hope and consolation.
This has been a common feature of all the Pause for Hope services held since then, as it has spread from Liverpool to many other churches and cathedrals across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
One of the things we do is to pray that the day will quickly come when all cancers can be prevented or cured. That day will surely come and the harder we all pray for it the sooner it will come.
The solutions are not far away and we have to pray that the minds of our scientists will see them soon. I treated many patients with cancer during my life as a surgeon and I was touched myself by cancer a few years ago, so I understand how the uncertainties of diagnosis and treatment can cause anxiety and even fear in those affected, and I include families, loved ones and friends in this.
Pause for Hope is there to help.
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