Community / Shetlander prepares to brave catwalk in front of thousands for cancer charity
A SHETLANDER who discovered she had cancer after a timely intervention by the Viking Genes programme is set to take to the catwalk for charity.
Christine Glaser, who was diagnosed with cancer around three years ago, will step out in front of thousands of people at Aberdeen’s huge P&J Live venue to raise money for Friends of Anchor next month.
The charity, which supports cancer patients from Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland, will run Courage on the Catwalk events on 16 and 17 May.
Glaser found out that she had the BRCA2 gene – which is linked to higher rates of breast and ovarian cancer in woman – in 2023 after being contacted by the Viking Genes team.
She was offered the chance to have surgery on her ovaries, or to have a double mastectomy, as a preventative measure against cancer.
But instead preliminary tests diagnosed Glaser with breast cancer then and there.
“My mammogram would have been two years later, so it would have been a whole different story by then,” Glaser told Shetland News.
“Thank God they found it when they did, because I didn’t have to have chemotherapy or anything like that.”
The BRCA2 variant has been linked to Whalsay, with Glaser’s grandmother from the island. She said that, between her and her five siblings, five of the six have had the gene.
Glaser’s sister also died from ovarian cancer, but the gene has thankfully not been passed to her son, she said.
Inspired by her cancer journey, Glaser said she became interested in taking part in Friends of Anchor’s catwalk campaigns.
They will hold events over four nights at the P&J Live, with two nights featuring male models and the other two – called “Courage on the Catwalk” – focusing on women who have, or have had, cancer.
The models range in ages from 23 to 75, and come from across the north of Scotland and, of course, Shetland.
Glaser said she had heard about the event before, and having spoken to a fellow Shetlander who participated decided to give it a go.
“Mandy Tait did it two years ago, and so I spoke to her at a wedding and said I was thinking about it.
“She said, “do it – it’s absolutely brilliant and it’s for a great cause’.”
Glaser was one of 66 women who applied for the 30 slots, eventually being selected as the sole Shetlander in the ranks.
The models were asked to attend eight rehearsals before the big event.
And though Glaser was initially told just to try get to half of them, she said NorthLink had sponsored her to help with the cost of her ferries – allowing her to attend every practice session.
“Every time I go to a rehearsal it gets easier,” she said.
“Next week we go down and have a rehearsal with the men. They’re going to be our audience and we’ll be theirs, so there will be about 100 people there.”
That is just a warm-up for the main event, when over 1,000 people will be in the crowd for both nights of Courage on the Catwalk.
Glaser said the organisers had showed them the venue they would be performing, calling it “really massive”.
She will be roared on by family and friends, with her husband Dieter, a family friend and her boyfriend travelling down from Shetland for the shows.
They will also be joined by her son coming up from Glasgow, and friends from Aberdeen, with a table of 10 cheering her on during night one and another eight in attendance the next night.
“It maybe makes it a bit more nerve-wracking,” she said.
Glaser added that she hopes to arrange a fundraiser for Viking Genes in Shetland, possibly next year.
Viking Genes is aiming to raise £1 million for a groundbreaking genetic screening programme for Shetland.
The project, which would be the first community genetic screening scheme in Scotland, aims to provide 5,000 Shetlanders with the opportunity to take part.
You can donate to Glaser’s JustGiving page for Friends of Anchor here.
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