Breast cancer patient from Hemel Hempstead wins Heart award for her bravery and dedication to fundraising

Georgie-May Tearle, an artist who works on film sets and is a part-time litter picking volunteer in Hemel Hempstead, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

But despite undergoing treatment, she still completed Race for Life an astonishing 12 times with fiancé Robbie – one for every week of chemotherapy she endued.

And she also became a ‘She-Rex’ during the Covid-19 lockdown, walking around Hemel in an inflatable dinosaur costume to help keep children entertained.

The 29-year-old says she was shocked to be invited to the Heart FM's Big Heart Award cremony, which recognises someone who has done something amazing in the community, after being nominated by her family, members of her litter picking group and a local child.

And she was even more shocked to win the final award of the evening.

During her emotional speech, after thanking her family and friends for their support, she said: “Cancer doesn’t have a face, until its your own”.

In May 2021, Georgie-May, 29, discovered an unusual lump in her breast while in the shower and got it checked by her GP.

Following a biopsy, she had surgery to remove the tumour and began several rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She said, “I think the only real thing that helped me while having chemotherapy was exercise.

“I think trying to make other people smile is always a big thing. Once they're smiling, you're smiling and it's an infectious sort of thing”.

Georgie-May’s efforts haven’t stopped yet, as despite still receiving treatment for breast cancer, she has completed 56 miles for Race for Life in February and 10k each day of March - raising over £1,000 for Cancer Research UK.

She has also become one of the faces of the charity, Look Good Feel Better.

Earlier this month, she was again praised by Heart FM – this time on International Women’s Day via an Instagram shoutout.

And she is determined to raise awareness as well as cash, as she says that during her fight with cancer she found herself without much information about what to expect as a young woman living with breast cancer.

Having filmed and documented everything from her cold cap to chemotherapy sessions, she now intends to put this “personal and difficult” footage onto Youtube to help support others like her, who had no idea what life looked like after being diagnosed.

Georgie-May is also hoping to start up her own charity, one that supports young women who are going through cancer treatment.

From offering pamper packs, with everything that she wishes she’d had during her time in hospital to vouchers for much-needed holidays and breaks between treatments, Georgie-May has high hopes her charity and one day taking her cause to Westminster.

She said: “I would love to take it to say to Parliament and say: ‘Look, women need to be checked, because look what happened to me’.”