The NI mum and QUB researcher on teaming up to help beat cancer
Jacquie Loughrey, from Londonderry, tells Stephanie Bell why she believes the work of Dr Lisa Connolly is vitally important when it comes to the prevention of cancer
Exploring whether the chemicals in the food we eat and the personal hygiene products we use could be contributing to soaring cancer rates has become the mission of two local women.
And it is because of their mutual passion for the subject — albeit for very different reasons — that the two women have now forged a close friendship.
Jacquie Loughrey (56), a mum-of-two from Londonderry, faced and survived her own cancer journey, just one year after her mother died of the same illness.
Jacquie has since left no stone unturned in her mission to find out why her family faced such devastation and to help and advise others on taking preventative measures.
Convinced that chemicals in our food are contributing to the fact that one in two of us will face a cancer diagnosis she has toured the province giving talks on preventative measures.
Her dedication to this journey has seen her cross paths with Dr Lisa Connolly, a leading academic at Queen’s University Belfast in Toxin Food Safety and an expert in Biossay Analysis of Endocrine Disruptors.
Dr Connolly is leading a new £3.5m global research project aimed at helping to reduce the impact of chemicals on longterm health.
She wants to establish if chemicals such as natural fungal toxins that can contaminate the food chain and synthetic chemicals such as pesticides are creating potentially dangerous mixtures with our natural hormones and causing illnesses such as cancer, obesity, diabetes or infertility.
With their joint passion for the issue it was inevitable that the two women would cross paths.
Jacquie recently invited Dr Connolly to speak at an event in Derry organised by the Pink Ladies Cancer Support Group to mark World Cancer Day 2018 and reciprocally Dr Connolly invited Jacquie to visit the world leading Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s last month.
Jacquie, who is education prevention office for the Pink Ladies charity, has an inspirational story to tell as she has turned a personal tragedy into a crusade to help prevent others from facing a cancer diagnosis.
Married to Pat, she is mum to Jack (25) and Gavin (21). She was inspired to research the causes of cancer after the devastation of her mum Margaret’s death and then her own battle with the disease just over a year later.
“The need to do everything I could to stay alive for my family was overwhelming,” she says.
“I spent all my time researching to make me stronger and came across a study by the World Health Organisation in 2013 regarding Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs).
“It changed my outlook entirely. I made it my business to read all I could get my hands on about EDCs.
“I followed every reputable organisation that told the facts and the science.
“I have become very interested in the science much to my family’s amusement as I was hopeless at science and maths at school. I walk the walk and put together my findings for the Pink Ladies and Pink Panthers charity.”
EDCs are mostly man-made, found in various materials such as pesticides, metals, additives or
The need to do everything I could to stay alive for my family was overwhelming