Celebrity show to raise £250,000 for breast cancer

11:08am Wednesday 5th November 2008

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A Mother and daughter from Barnet who were both diagnosed with breast cancer are putting on a celebrity-studded West End variety show to raise £250,000 for cancer research.

Stars including Vernon Kay, Denise Van Outen, Cat Deeley will join 30 children from the borough to help Sylvie Henry and her daughter Danielle Leslie raise money for their charity Future Dreams.

The one-off performance, “For One Night Only” at the Savoy Theatre, in the Strand, sold out almost immediately. The money will go to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Mrs Henry, 61, set up the charity after she was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer last November. She and her daughter, both mothers of three, had previously recovered from breast cancer following long courses of chemotherapy.

She said: “Danielle and I had been discussing doing this for a couple of years, but hadn’t done anything about it. Then, when I was diagnosed with lung cancer, we realised time was of the essence and we had to act now.

“This is very important to both of us. A thousand people die every month from breast cancer-related things so more money for research is vital.

“I don’t want my grand-daughter going through what her mother and grandmother had to go through.”

Mrs Leslie, 38, joined her mother in running her two professional dance schools – the Sylvie Henry Dance School and the Arts Factory – after she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance in 1991.

It was around this time that Mrs Henry discovered she had breast cancer. Fifteen years later, aged just 35, her daughter was given the same diagnosis.

Mrs Leslie: “Having seen the devastation that breast cancer caused to me, to my mum and to our family, there can be no greater motivation than to think that by the time my daughter reaches 35, we will have the funding, the resources and the understanding to beat this disease.

“Future Dreams brings together everything that mum and I have been through together and that we are passionate about.”

Diagnosed with primary lung cancer in October last year, Mrs Henry recently finished a six-month course of chemotherapy and is still on chemotherapy drugs. But friend Francesca Frank, 38, said her determination and strength knows no bounds.

“Sylvie got the news late last year, but she decided that the show must go on. They weren’t going to let anything get in their way. During the day she’d be on chemo drips and in the evening she’d be chairing committee meetings. It was inspirational.”

“For One Night Only” will be performed on Sunday, November 9. Tickets are sold out but returns may be available on 08701648787.