🐞🐾Six of six🐾🐞

In March 2003, Kenny was in the kitchen waiting when Marina Dalglish came home from getting the results of a scan. She told him straight out what the consultant had found. “I’ve got breast cancer.” “I need chemotherapy.” He barely took in anything else after that. “I only remember the two Cs.” “Cancer and chemotherapy.” She had two different types of breast cancer. It meant a double mastectomy, then chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It had been caught early, but there were still months of operations, hospital appointments and losing her hair. Marina wasn't having any of it take over the family. “It’s better to have no hair than no life.” She got herself wigs in all sorts of styles and colours, and the kids would play about with them. Sitting around being miserable was never an option, and she wouldn't have stood for it anyway. Kenny took her to chemo, sometimes at Aintree, sometimes over the Wirral at Clatterbridge. Along the way they saw how far cancer patients and their families were having to travel, and the conditions the nurses were working in. When she got the all-clear, Marina wanted to give something back to the people who'd cared for her. “I’d like to do something to help.” She went to her surgeon, Lee Martin, and asked what they could do. “Well, as you know, the facilities are pretty primitive.” “We’d really like a new chemotherapy unit.” Kenny had something a bit more modest in mind. “Ok.” “I was thinking of a golf day.” Marina's mind was already made up. “We’ll have a go.” In 2005 the family launched the Marina Dalglish Appeal. A thank you to the doctors and nurses turned into millions of pounds for cancer care across Merseyside, paying for new oncology centres, chemotherapy facilities and equipment, plus support for patients and their families. Marina never treated it as hers. “This isn’t my charity.” “It belongs to everybody who has supported us.” Her name was on the door, but she'd rather stay in the background and let others get the benefit. And whenever Kenny got the praise for what the Dalglish family had done, he handed it straight back to her. “The real one to look up to has been Marina.” "Her charity has raised millions and millions of pounds for the fight against cancer." The Marina Dalglish Appeal has now raised more than £15 million. Started with a golf day idea, ended with a chemo unit and a whole lot more.