Pamela Dungey

This is Pamela Dungey and her story as to why she decided to brave the shave for cancer research UK. Last year, her brother John Dungey was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. John was a local businessman owning C and H Plumbing Supplies, he was married and had 3 children in all. John was definitely a people person, and always put others before himself, he had a true passion for the sea and owned his own speedboat that he and his wife would take out to west wales and wave bash. John always had a radio with him and would listen out if anyone was in danger and if he was close by he would try to help. Then the opportunity came for him to become a volunteer crew member of the Barry RNLI. John joined and absolutely loved going out on shouts to help those in difficulty at sea, never thinking about the danger he was himself in. John was operated on almost immediately after his diagnosis and had to give up all of the things in his life he held so dear. He spent the next year, tying up the loose ends of his life, selling his business, and making sure that his family would want for nothing. John passed away at Holme Towers in Penarth earlier this year. At the same time as john was in Holme Towers, Pamela's best friends son Samuel Gould, who lived in Caerphilly became ill. Sam ran a DJ business, but he was also a local councillor on his local county council. Sam was married with 3 young children all under the age of 5. Sam began to lose blood and so went to his GP, he was sent into the hospital where tests were carried out and it was found that Sam had bowel cancer which had at that time already spread throughout his liver and other areas. Sam faced his own death with the most incredible courage and dignity, but before he died he asked to see Pamela, and he jokingly said, “I challenge you to brave the shave for bowel cancer research”. From the day that Sam was diagnosed to the day he passed was only 8 weeks....8 weeks! He campaigned during that time to bring the age of bowel cancer screening down and those of his political friends are still campaigning to do this. Sam died just a week before her brother John. The promise that Pamela had made to Sam and the fact that she wanted to honour her brothers memory to, and wanted ALL cancers to be cured, and so chose Cancer Research UK. The date of the BIG SHAVE to be on October 3rd, and then set about raising awareness of her campaign to raise money. At first her goal was just £500, and to date Ramela has raised £1700. Cancer touches almost every single family in the UK and across the world now, and the only way that they are going to beat it is to find a cure, and they cant do this without research. On October 3rd, one hour before the shave she was, to be honest, a wee bit emotional, but Pamela knew that she was doing this for all of the right reasons. Fulfilling her promise to Sam, and honouring the memory of her brother. Her hair which was then cut was tied into small bunches, then cut off individually, they will be sent to THE LITTLE PRINCESS’S TRUST who make wigs for children who have lost their hair through illness.