Edinburgh cancer survivor to scale Capital's seven hills in a day for charity

Jacqui Gale, 61, had a stem cell transplant and is now in remission from Hodgkin Lymphona, a type of blood cancer.

Friends and family will join her on August 30 at the summit of Arthur’s Seat to mark the milestone of Edinburgh’s Business Beats Cancer board having raised £500,000 for Cancer Research UK.

The mum-of-two said: “I live every day with gratitude for still being alive and know that I wouldn’t be here without life-saving science.

Jacqui Gale on Calton Hill | Lesley Martin

“When the pandemic first struck, I was CEO of a company with a factory that made candles and diffusers.

“As the enormity of the COVID19 situation started to unfold in March 2020, I had a call from the NHS asking if our factory could make hand sanitiser as they had none.

“We turned the factory around in ten days creating three million bottles of hand sanitiser in three months for the NHS and frontline services.

“The factory was running 24 hours a day. Staff were under immense pressure but there was a real sense of togetherness.

“I thought then that I had faced the biggest challenge of my personal and professional life time. Then I got cancer.”

After discovering a lump in her neck in the summer of 2020, Jacqui was referred to hospital for tests and the removal of a lymph node.

She continued with her non-stop working routine until, on September 30 of that year, she stepped away from a business meeting to take a phone call with shocking news.

Jacqui received her MBE at Windsor Castle | Lesley Martin

“The doctor explained that the lump was not swollen glands and it was not a tumour”, Jacqui said.

“I remember saying, ‘phew, so not cancer.’ They then went on to say that I had Hodgkin Lymphoma which was a blood cancer.

“I could feel the butterflies in my stomach begin. I’ve always been good at compartmentalising things in my life. I thought, ‘okay, I’ll deal with this later’ and I actually went back in to the business meeting and I just carried on.”

Jacqui then had to explain her diagnosis to her close-knit family, including 60-year-old husband Clive and their children Alannah, 24, and Ben, 21.

It was made all the more difficult by the fact that they had been devastated just months earlier by the death of Jacqui’s aunt Margaret Lees from bowel cancer.

Next came 12 weeks of chemotherapy at the height of the pandemic, with restrictions meaning she had to walk alone to the Western General Hospital for her first session on October 22.

Jacqui said: “Like so many things in life, firsts are scary.

“As soon as I sat down in the chair and the nurse began getting me ready for chemotherapy things felt very real.

“A lovely nurse called Jenny gently explained what was going to happen and it was then that my tears came. I can’t praise the nursing staff enough.

“They were phenomenally kind and helped me see that I was okay and that I could do this.”

Among the side effects Jacqui faced were the loss of her hair - but she continued to work throughout the treatment.

Just after Christmas, she was hit with a major blow when tests revealed the chemotherapy was working but that she had more areas of cancerous activity.

Despite starting on a new chemo drug in June 2021, doctors said her best bet was to undergo a stem cell transplant.

After injections in to her stomach twice a day and conditioning treatment in isolation to kill off her bone marrow, the transplant went ahead on August 10, 2021.

Jacqui continued: “That was the day I was reborn and this August I’ll be marking the third anniversary of my transplant.

“I became very poorly before I started to get better. At one point I had sepsis which is a serious complication of an infection but I responded quickly to treatment.

“There were some incredibly tough days. I was told at first that I might be in hospital for as long as three months but I was actually well enough to get out of hospital after three weeks.”

In the period after the surgery, Jacqui built her strength back up by returning to work and completing an Master of Business Administration.

In March 2022, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by the Princess Royal for her hard work to supply the health service during the pandemic.

Jacqui with husband Clive and children Alannah and Ben | Lesley Martin

Family life also continued - with a trip to London to see Abba Voyage last year coinciding with her 60th birthday.

Jacqui added: “Life is precious. Now I want to do everything I can to keep loved ones together for longer, see people reach milestone birthdays and bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.”

The Business Beats Cancer Board is a fundraising body founded in 2018 with members from boardrooms across the city with the aim of boosting research.

Cancer Research UK relationship manager, Holly Frazer, said: “We are grateful to Jacqui for sharing her story and to all members of the Business Beats Cancer Edinburgh board who give their time so generously to support life-saving research.

“By harnessing the power of their networks to support our groundbreaking work they’ll help save lives. It’s thanks to the generosity of our supporters, that we’ve helped double cancer survival in the UK in the last 50 years.

“But with around 34,600 people diagnosed with cancer each year in Scotland, we’re not stopping now.

“By raising crucial funds, supporters will help bring us closer to a world where everybody can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of this devastating disease.”