ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD Ellie Irvine gave her mother the best possible Christmas present imaginable recently when she took to the stage to perform a dance choreographed in memory of her dad.
Kesh man, Noel Irvine, lost his courageous battle to pancreatic cancer in November 2011.
Since his untimely death, his wife, Kerry has devoted much of her time to raising money for and awareness of the cancer often referred to as the ‘silent killer’.
As a tribute to her father, as well as the tireless work of her mother to raise GP awareness in particular of pancreatic cancer’s signs and symptoms, Ellie’s dance as part of the Dance Factory School of Performing Arts’ Christmas Show came as a complete surprise to everyone in the room.
It had initially been choreographed a year ago as part of a dance competition that Ellie had participated in.
“I had no clue that she was going to perform it on the night of the show,” said Kerry, “They are never allowed to tell us what they are performing anyway. But this was a huge surprise. It brought tears to my eyes to watch her dance in memory of her dad. He would have been so proud of her.”
Ellie has been dancing with the Dance Factory for the last four years.
A raffle had been organised on the night of the Christmas Show in aid of Kerry’s fundraising and awareness campaign, ‘Action for Noel’.
“Ellie’s dancing instructor, Leanne came on to the stage and introduced Ellie as Noel’s daughter. When she came on to the stage to start dancing, that was when I started bawling!” said Kerry.
“She certainly has a talent when it comes to her dancing. Maybe I am biased because I am her mother, but I think she is a fantastic dancer. I think she was incredibly brave to stand up and perform a dance that is so full of emotion and so personal to her own loss.”
Ellie danced to Jen Bostic’s ‘Jealous of the Angels’, a song which has recently become hugely popular since local singer Donna Taggart released her own version.
“That particular song is very poignant for us as a family. It is one of our favourites,” said Kerry, “Ellie actually met Jen Bostic. She also lost her daddy at a very young age. That is what the song is all about.
“Ellie’s performance was particularly poignant given that it is so close to Christmas. This was always Noel’s time of year. He was like a big kid. It was always him decorating the tree. It was probably the only time we as a couple argued -- over decorating the tree!
“Christmas is always a difficult time of year for us as a family. We all miss him very much.”
Through Action for Noel, Kerry has been focusing on distribution GP packs which provide information and support to GPs in order to encourage early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
She is also promoting an E-learning module which is available for pharmacists and counter staff to help them recognise the signs and symptoms of patients or customers who make frequent trips to their pharmacy. “Public awareness is so important,” said Kerry, “Just last week a met someone who had lost their daddy to pancreatic cancer a year ago. They hadn’t heard of Action for Noel. That tells me that I need to keep shouting to have our message heard.”