Woman celebrates Everest climb with coffee rave

A community breakfast rave was held to celebrate a woman with incurable cancer who successfully climbed Everest last week.

The event took place in Ilkley to mark the homecoming of Dr Shaunna Burke, and to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Burke, who lives in Addingham, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in 2024 and underwent a double mastectomy, liver surgery and radiotherapy.

The "coffee rave" started at 07:30 BST and around 150 friends, neighbours and well-wishers turned out to support her.

Burke said: "I'm absolutely blown away by the love that I feel from the community. I had so many messages of support while I was on the mountain, and those messages carried me through the climb.

"I can feel the energy here as well, it's just such a beautiful community of people who have supported me all the way through my journey."

An exercise psychologist at the University of Leeds, she has also been researching how exercise can be used in cancer treatment.

She first climbed Everest in 2005 and said it had been an "incredible experience" to reach the summit for a second time on 30 May.

Returning home five days before the rave, Burke said she was still jetlagged but ready to get back into a routine and plan for her next climb.

"I haven't rested that much but it's the energy and the buzz of reaching the summit which was such a meaningful feat for me," she said.

"It was very emotional when I got to the summit, with everything I've gone through over the last couple of years. I think I'm still on a high from it all."

The rave was organised by local businesses and friends who wanted to celebrate her achievement.

Mark Summerson, one of the organisers, said: "It was a silly idea that came from nothing. Over a coffee one morning, a few of us thought why don't we do something to support Shaunna. Three or four hours later we had it planned.

"I had no idea what to expect, we should have ticketed it! To see this many people here is amazing, I'm blown away.

"If you look at Shaunna's story, both in living with cancer but also her research, it's such a beautiful story. When she got to the top of Everest last week, it brought tears to our eyes."

Burke was met at Everest base camp by eight friends, including Gill Paxton, 57, who attended the breakfast rave.

Paxton said the event was important not only to raise money, but to bring hope to people living with cancer.

She said: "It's phenomenally important that cancer brings a positive message not just a negative message.

"Shaunna is the most amazing woman, cancer is the most horrible disease and it's not the end of the world to fight it. As she says, put one foot in front of the other and keep going."

Burke set a fundraising target of £50,000 for the charity, which has supported her throughout her treatment.

She said: "I wanted to use my climb as a platform to raise awareness of living with stage four cancer and to highlight the incredible work that Macmillan as a charity does right across the country.

"At the moment I've raised over £30,000, so I'm hoping to continue to raise money to give back to a charity that's really helped me."

The breakfast rave was such a hit with attendees and passers-by that organisers have been asked to run it every week.

Colin Hambleton and Max Crane, co-owners of La Stazione coffee shop which supplied coffee for the rave, said it was an honour to celebrate Burke, who has been a regular customer for the last 10 years.

Crane said: "We're lucky enough to have known her for a decade, she comes in to the shop a lot with the cycling club too. We're honoured to have her in Ilkley - what a woman!"

Hambleton said it had been humbling to see what she had achieved despite her cancer diagnosis.

"It puts everything in perspective that somebody can rise above everything they're dealing with to make it into something bigger and better, and push things forward for the charity," he said.

Burke spent the last 12 months preparing for the challenge and said the thing she had suffered from the most during the climb was the cold temperatures at night.

She also ran the Everest Marathon last year and has previously climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, Elbrus in Russia and Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Alongside raising money and awareness, Burke used the challenge to further her research into the impact of exercise on cancer and how low oxygen affects cancer markers.

She said: "I worked closely with Leeds Beckett University in preparation, using their high altitude chamber to look to prepare myself for the effects of high altitude to make sure that I was well acclimated before going to the mountain."

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