Mike Mccartney Main Speaker At 11th Annual 'Pause For Hope' Service Sunday 11th October 2009 Mike McCartney, celebrity photographer, member of the Scaffold and brother of Paul McCartney will be the main speaker at this year's ecumenical Pause for Hope service for all people affected by cancer. It will be held in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Mount Pleasant, Liverpool on Sunday 11th October 2009 at 3 pm. Archbishop Patrick Kelly will preside. Mike and his brother lost their mother to breast cancer when they were children and Mike himself is a skin cancer survivor. He says "It was devastating to lose our mother and I remember clearly the last time she left our house to go into hospital...it is something which never leaves you. Having had a brush with cancer myself, I have always been ready to help, in any way I can, other people who have been affected by it. I am really looking forward to speaking at the service." The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and Marie Curie Cancer Care are joining forces to promote the service. Music will be provided by the Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust and the choir of St Anne's C of E Primary School in Rainhill. Professor Ray Donnelly, Founder and President of the Roy Castle Foundation, who initiated the services, said: " There has been a tremendous response to this service in the last few years and we have clearly struck a chord. One in three people is affected by cancer nowadays and many find the opportunity to pray and reflect together to be very consoling and helpful. It is a very uplifting event." Prayers will be offered for patients, families and friends, carers, nurses and doctors, as well as those in public office with responsibility for managing resources and also for scientists working to find a cure. Dignitaries attending include the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Dame Lorna Muirhead, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Mike Storey, the High Sheriff of Merseyside, Mr David McDonnell, the Mayors of Sefton, St Helens and Knowsley, the Deputy Mayor of Wirral and Mr Mike Hagen, Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Merseyside. The service is being recorded for subsequent broadcast by BBC Radio Merseyside.
