This week at P&J Live in Aberdeen, 24 men and 23 women from across the north-east will join a very special club.
Over four nights — the men on Thursday and Friday and the women on Saturday and Sunday — they will take to the stage for the pair of annual fundraising fashion shows organised by Aberdeen cancer charity Friends of Anchor.
The club already has hundreds of members. Brave, which is the men’s show, began in 2017, while the women’s edition, Courage on the Catwalk, started even earlier in 2013.
But membership to this exclusive set comes at a price. To gain admission, you need to have had a cancer diagnosis.
“It’s a thank you,” explains Allen Shaw, 52, from Cults, who is part of this year’s Brave show. “It’s for my wife, my daughters, my friends — the people who held everything together when I couldn’t.”
From Beach Ballroom to P&J Live
Brave and Courage on the Catwalk are now among the most high-profile charity events in the north-east calendar.
What began as a modest fundraiser at Aberdeen’s Beach Ballroom has grown into a major production at P&J Live, with lights, music, choreography and an audience of more than 1,000 at each show.
Last year alone, the events raised £360,000 for Friends of Anchor, helping to fund cancer research, improve patient wellbeing and support clinical care across the north-east.
Allen is typical of the people who take part in Brave and Courage — each with a story that’s entirely their own, yet united by their determination to face cancer head-on.
An inspector with the Scottish Police Federation, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2022 after he experienced numbness in his fingers and severe back pain, symptoms he initially chalked up to age and his rugby-playing days.
Scans revealed a shadow on his lung. At first, doctors suspected lung cancer and Allen and his wife Kate, a specialist breast cancer nurse practitioner, were told it could be terminal.
“That moment… we genuinely thought I might have six months left,” he says. “I was lying on the sofa, unable to walk, doing flashcards with my daughter while she studied for exams. We didn’t tell our girls for weeks. I didn’t want to distract them or scare them.”
What Courage and Brave do for their stars
Now in remission after six months of chemotherapy, Allen says taking part in Brave has been a hugely positive part of his recovery.
He’s embraced the experience wholeheartedly, from the loud group chats with his fellow Brave models to choosing a pink-accented suit that he jokes makes him look “like the man from Del Monte.”
“The camaraderie is amazing. We’re all different – some of the guys are in remission, some are still undergoing treatment, some are palliative – but we get each other. You don’t have to explain what you’ve been through.”
And when he steps out on stage on Thursday night, a newly-minted member of the Brave and Courage club, he’ll be surrounded by people who know exactly how he feels.
“On the night, when we’re doing it, it’ll be, ‘We’re here, boys, we’ve done it’,” he says. “We’ve come together and we’ve made it.”
Applications to take part in Brave and Courage next year are now open. Click here to apply.
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