With just days to go until this year’s Dumfries & Galloway Relay For Life the 24-hour programme has been released and promises a day filled with laughter, smiles, fundraising and music at Bladnoch Park from 11am on Saturday.
The event opens with the Survivors and Caregivers Lap of Honour to celebrate survival and offer hope for those currently going through a cancer journey. More than 40 survivors and caregivers are signed up lead the first lap, with 22 teams totalling more than 430 people joining in behind them to begin their challenge: to have at least one team member from each team on track at all times until 11am on Sunday.
The entertainment kicks off at 12noon with Samba Sisters on stage, as the teams open their fundraising stalls and welcome members of the public to join in the host of fun and challenging activities from beat the goalie to tombola, and face painting to play your cards right.
The Tea Tent Totties will keep everyone well fuelled with tea, coffee and cake throughout the day, a hog roast early evening and hot chocolate and munchies throughout the night, while the Track Team will lead a host of themed laps to keep spirits high and to build camaraderie among the teams – there’s also nothing like a little healthy competition! Look out for space hoppers, hobby horses, and the infamous decorated underwear laps.
Dumfries Community Choir take to the stage at 1pm, whilst Cancer Research UK Scientist Lisa Evers joins us at 2pm to highlight the amazing worth the charity can undertake thanks to funds raised through events like Relay For Life. We’ll be highlighting the five key cancer awareness messages throughout the day with decorated cakes, posters, poems and songs reflecting eating and drinking healthily, being sun smart, exercising regularly, stopping smoking and visiting your doctor. There’ll also be challenges for grown ups and children to find the damaged cells in a ball pool, identify fruits from xrays and play supermarket sweep on track.
LOKA perform at 3pm, leading us into a Gail McKeown’s brave head-shave on stage at 4.45pm.
The Emma Louise Dance Club show off their moves at 5pm before Anne Dunford reads a poem by the late Jacquie Swift at 6pm.
At 7pm, Gina Lawson will sing out across the park as nervous teams prepare for the first ever Relay’s Got Talent Competition at 8pm – who will the judges crown as the winner?
As the evening draws on, local singer, songwriter and musician Zoë Bestel
