The three photographs above each show a smiling Roy Mearns standing next to his daughter, Leanne McKay.
All were taken shortly after Leanne completed one of the three 5k runs she did in August and September to raise more than £1,000 for Friends of Anchor, the charity that did so much for her dad when he was diagnosed in 2022 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that attacks bone marrow.
Today, however, the pictures have a special poignancy.
When Leanne started her fundraising, Roy’s cancer was in remission. By the time of the final race, Roy had been told his cancer had returned.
‘I’m struggling to breathe and then getting told to run faster’
The news was a shock to Roy and his family, even though they knew it would happen one day. Roy’s cancer, though treatable, was classed as incurable.
It also made Leanne even more determined to do her dad proud in the last race, which she ran a full four minutes faster than her first.
“I was quite determined,” says the 33-year-old mum of two, whose asthma made the 5k challenge a daunting prospect.
“I’m struggling to breathe and then getting told to run faster by my husband.”
But, she adds, knowing about the return of the cancer “helped me get through the last run”.
Roy, who was one of the two dozen men who took to the stage at Aberdeen’s P&J Live in May for Friends of Anchor charity fashion show Brave, says he is immensely proud of Leanne for her fundraising efforts.
The three races were in Banchory on August 25, Huntly on September 7 and Inverness on September 25.
Leanne also ran the Garioch 5k earlier in the year.
“Her words to me were: ‘I know why I’m doing this, it’s because of you,’” Roy, 67, says. “‘I don’t have cancer, but you do.’”
Roy looks to the future with Porsche repair
Roy remains typically upbeat in the face of his cancer’s return.
When he spoke to the P&J ahead of Brave, the former farmer and truck driver said he was taking life one day at a time.
These days, he says, he gets tired more easily, but he is still looking ahead.
He’s just overseen the building of a shed at his property outside Turriff where he plans to continue restoring a Porche he recently bought, though he admits he needs some professional help.
“I need to take it to a Porsche garage,” Roy says. “It’s just like me going into hospital.”
Meanwhile, Leanne says the family plan to book a holiday together “to try and make some memories”.
“We just want to spend as much time with him as possible,” she says.
To donate to Leanne’s Friends of Anchor fundraiser, click here.
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