Walking over hot coals for Maggie’s

National World - LocalTV

To raise awareness and money for Maggie’s Centres, Maggie’s Newcastle and their art therapy partner, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts, have jointly held a fire walk to highlight the resilience needed to overcome fears and challenges in life.

Transcript

00:00Firewalk is something we've always wanted to do but we needed to pick the perfect location

00:04but it's also something that tests human resilience, it's something that releases your inner strength

00:09but it's also something that people can do like our centre visitors.

00:13One lady said to me, I can't throw myself out of a plane, I can't do a marathon but

00:18I would walk over hot coals for Maggie's and that sort of spurred that on to say, let's

00:22do a firewalk then.

00:24This is the second time we've run a firewalk with Maggie's and we started a partnership

00:28with them because we both care about mental health and wellbeing, creativity, hospitality

00:36and care, there are a lot of overlaps with the work that we do.

00:39We decided as a way to sort of raise the profile of our partnership with both charities, we'd

00:44do something really spectacular that encourages people to take on a real challenge.

00:49We've done several for Maggie's up and down the country, we love working with Maggie's,

00:53it's such a deserving cause and we're always open to giving them as much support as we

00:59possibly can, I just wish we could give them more.

01:01A lot of the time when you're going through cancer treatment it can be mind over matter

01:06a lot of the time, your mind can go in other places so it's just a way of trying to just

01:12remember not everything's forever.

01:14Earlier this year I was diagnosed with stage 1 testicular cancer and I've come through

01:18the other side of it so the Maggie's Centre were a really big help and a good support

01:21to me, I'm also a fan of art as well so I like that they're putting the two together,

01:25so just mash it together and I think also just raising awareness about the Maggie's

01:27Centre as well.

01:28We lost our sister to cancer two years ago and Maggie's was a massive help to our family

01:35and her when we were going through everything and we've been raising quite a lot of money,

01:42the whole family have been raising money.

01:44Went to Maggie's, they were a massive support, they were there to give us guidance on benefits

01:49but also there just to put an arm around and just someone to talk to but they weren't

01:53just there for me, they were there for my family as well because obviously I'm not just

01:57going through it, my family was as well.

02:00One of the things that became really apparent when we were speaking to people was the fact

02:04that people needed something else to focus on other than their cancer treatment, other

02:07than what was going on in their daily lives and art therapy is always something that people

02:12really love and enjoy to do so we got in touch with Baltic and worked alongside them to incorporate

02:19art workshops not only here at the Baltic but also in Maggie's as well so they have that support.

02:24We've been running workshops for people who are affected by cancer, they're art therapy

02:31workshops that help people to express themselves and live as well as possible so it's really

02:37worthwhile and it's really moving to see how keen people are to get behind it.

02:44Fire Walk is a beautiful opportunity, it's a metaphor for the challenges that we face

02:48in life so when doubt or fear or uncertainty show up for us it gives us the opportunity

02:53to reflect on who we become in that moment, how do we show up in life when life gets tough,

02:58when it throws us the curve ball.

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