Irish TV presenter Laura Whitmore said it is important to support cancer charities because “we’ll all be touched by cancer somewhere in our life” – as she described losing someone to the “terrible disease”.
The former Love Island presenter (38) was among the returning celebrities at an annual event at brokerage firm BGC Partners on Monday to raise millions of pounds in memory of the 658 BGC employees and 61 Eurobrokers employees who died during the September 11th terror attacks in 2001.
Dublin-born Whitmore was pictured picking up the phone in support of Children With Cancer UK, sporting the charity’s gold ribbon, in a bid to raise awareness during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
She told the PA news agency: “I don’t think there’s anyone that wouldn’t be connected to this charity in any way.
“I think cancer is a terrible, terrible disease anyway, no matter what age, but it’s something about when it affects children because every child deserves a childhood.
“I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to do something. Sadly I think we’ll all be touched by cancer somewhere in our life.
“We had someone close to us ourselves and we just need to keep reducing the number of people who lose their lives.”
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It comes weeks after Whitmore said her friend, photographer Jay McLaughlin, had died after being diagnosed with stage four cancer.
At the time, she wrote on Instagram: “Sadly we have lost Jay. We had been preparing ourselves for the worst but you never fully comprehend it. He’s been part of and taken photos of so many stages of my life – shoots, BTS (behind the scenes), headshots, birthdays.. not to mention our shared love of Star Wars.
“I know he was in a lot of pain near the end so I hope he is free of the restraints that his body had on him. Rest in power, he was a force who I am eternally grateful to have known.”
On Monday, Whitmore described the BGC Charity Day as “vital” for the different charities and said it offers an opportunity for famous faces to do “something positive, raise awareness and raise funds towards research”.
“This is a big company that makes a lot of money for a lot of people, I think one day a year to use the profits they make to give to people who need it the most,” she said.
“There’s a huge living crisis at the moment but there’s also a massive divide – the rich are getting richer and the poor are not able to maybe help as much as they’d like to.
“So let’s have a day where this big company comes along and picks these great different charities every year, who need it the most.
“You have no idea how much it’s going to help all of these charities, all of the charities that are here are going to benefit and I just think it’s a wonderful thing and I just hope they continue doing it every year.”
Whitmore recently explored cyberstalking, the incel (involuntary celibacy) culture and rough sex in a new ITV documentary series and said she was cyberstalked 10 years ago.
The star, who is married to Scottish comedian Iain Stirling and welcomed a baby in March 2021, announced she was stepping down as host of ITV2’s Love Island last year after taking over in 2020 after the death of former host Caroline Flack.
