A SHOP owner who suffers from a rare form of blood cancer is having her head shaved to raise money for charity.

Sue Denny, who runs a shop in the Dundas Arcade in Middlesbrough is having her head shaved for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Her father, mother, her husband’s parents and her brother-in-law have all died of cancer.

On Saturday, September 18– a day after her 57th birthday – Mrs Denny is joining thousands of other fund-raisers around the country who since 2015 have Braved the Shave for Macmillan Cancer Support, donating a staggering £23m.

This year alone £1.8m has been raised through the campaign. That money would fund the equivalent of 34 Macmillan nurses for a year.

Mrs Denny and her sister June Jones run The Crafty Sisters shop in the Dundas Indoor Market. The shop is split between Mrs Denny’s business Ellenswood Pyrography and Stitch and Sew where Mrs Jones sells handmade children’s clothes.

Mrs Jones’s husband Bob died more than 10 years ago, aged just 59. He had stem cell cancer and when he was being treated in hospital had been allocated a Macmillan nurse for his return home.

The Northern Echo:

Mrs Denny was diagnosed with indolent systemic mastocytosis in her early 50s. Three years ago she suffered a terrifying health scare when she was visiting Middlesbrough town centre with her husband Maurice.

The 56-year-old said: “I could barely breathe. My eyes were closing. My throat was closing.”

“I ended up on a trolley. I was on oxygen and my blood pressure dropped.”

“I was very calm. I was thinking that I’m not going to see Maurice, my brothers and sisters, anymore, but mum’s waiting for me.”

She was told later that a doctor, fearing the worst, said Maurice should tell her he loved her.

Sue is on permanent medication, has regular check-ups at a specialist hospital and has not had a repeat of such a serious incident.

“But I’m not really doing the head shave for me, it’s for everybody,” she said. Sue is an experienced fund-raiser.

She has zip wired off the Transporter Bridge on behalf of Middlesbrough’s Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice and taken part in the Great North Run to raise money for cancer patients at The James Cook University Hospital. Sue also gives cash from the sale of carrier bags in her shop to the Great North Air Ambulance.

Macmillan Cancer Support’s commitment is to help everyone with cancer live life as fully as they can, providing physical, financial and emotional support.

Donations to Sue can be made through her page on Macmillan Cancer Support’s Go Fund Me website http://gofund.me/82dcf517