I'm a Celebrity winner Giovanna Fletcher is set to complete a sponsored walk alongside an Ormskirk student to raise money for breast cancer.
Emilia McRobie, a education and English student, is preparing to walk 100 kilometres along the Pembrokeshire Coast this June as part of a fundraiser with the star. The 19-year-old is completing the five-day trek to raise awareness of how important early detection in cancer is, something she knows too well.
The Edge Hill University student's grandmother, Linda Parker, was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 65-years-old in 2014. Emilia, who was 11 at the time, said she was too young to understand the seriousness of the situation, but still she remembers feeling worried, she just couldn't grasp why.
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She told the ECHO : "I didn't understand much at the time due to being so young but as I grew up and started to understand my own body I began to understand how scary and lonely that revelation must have been for her and how brave she was for even seeking medical attention. She recently had another scare, luckily nothing to be concerned about, but it really does put everything into perspective. She is one of my biggest supports but I am also one of her biggest cheerleaders. I am so proud of her."
"My grandma and I are really close. She's obsessed with sewing so when the pandemic hit she even made me some boobie facemask for my business. She is also costa-obsessed so a lot of our time together is spent in coffee shops, which I'm not complaining about."
Emilia explained her grandmother recently went through another scare which left her feeling anxious as she is over 170 miles away from her in Newcastle. Using her own experience, Emilia became the president of the her university's Boob Team, a society which aims to raise awareness of breast cancer for young people at university and encourages people to seek medical advice if they’ve noticed any changes. The five-day trek is just another way she hopes to raise funds for breast cancer awareness charity, CoppaFeel.
Other fundraising campaigns headed by the team have included awareness stalls across the university campus, a pub quiz fundraising event, and a 'shower hijack', where members handed out shower hangers visualising the symptoms of breast cancer so students can regularly check their chests.
Emilia added: "Everything I do for CoppaFeel is in the hope that many more people can be as lucky as me to still have my Grandma. Early detection is vital and therefore we need to get people checking themselves and learning the signs and symptoms. This trek is just a great opportunity to raise money for a breast cancer charity, as well as a mental, physical and emotional challenge."
Emilia will also be joined by fellow society member David Price and together they want to raise an additional £5,000 to add to the £1,500 total their society has raised so far.
David, a 20-year-old geography student, said: "400 men in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer, even if you aren’t one of the 400 men it’s likely that you know one out of seven women who are diagnosed with breast cancer within their lifetime.
"I believe the biggest challenges enduring the trek will be the mental challenge of walking more than six hours a day, and the physical challenge of climbing steep inclines across the coastline. To prepare myself for the trek, I’m currently following a 10-week training plan to increase my endurance and stamina."
Recognising breast cancer can affect anyone, the society's mission is fully inclusive of men, women and non-binary people and has been met with a warm response on campus.
Rhiannon Muise, arts and sciences officer at Edge Hill Students’ Union, said: “All of our societies offer something unique. No matter what you’re interested in, there’s something for everyone at Edge Hill.
“I’m so proud of the Uni Boob Team and their accomplishments this year. The CoppaFeel trek will be another bullet point on the long list of all the amazing things they’ve done.”
You can donate to their Emilia's JustGiving page here and David's here.
