Claire's charity Countdown

Mum-of-two, Claire Molyneux, took on the popular challenging gameshow last month, in an effort to support the work she does in the city, bringing together others who are battling cancer to relax and have fun.

Claire, aged 50, of Hunters Bar, said: “I really enjoyed the whole experience. The team at Countdown put my husband and I up in a hotel for two nights, and several friends came along to watch.

“I got my hair and make-up done whilst chatting to Suzy and Rachel from the show, and everyone was really nice. I didn’t get a chance to do any practice on set though, and you could only see the letters and numbers in a small monitor, so it was very different from the experience of playing along at home. Also the nerves kicked in just as it was my turn to be filmed so my brain went to mush. I didn’t expect to win and so didn’t feel disappointed at losing - I got more points than I expected!

“My husband and I spent the rest of the day in the green room watching other episodes being filmed, which was great fun.”

Claire’s efforts have raised over £500 on her Just Giving page, a figure Claire is delighted with.

“When I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer two years ago, I wanted to meet other people with incurable, life-limiting cancer who were a similar age to me - i.e retired very early,” she said.

“There wasn’t any organisation that enabled me to do this so I set up the Cancer Treat Club. It has been going since November 2016 and gets new members every month. We go out and do fun things for free on the first Friday of every month.”