Schoolgirl Kirsty Waugh launched a global campaign after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2024. She was surprised on stage at The Masked Singer with the Pride of Britain Child of Courage award
This is the spectacular moment a feisty 12-year-old got a shock double reveal while watching The Masked Singer from the studio audience. Not only did she find out which chatty man was under the huge jazzy glasses mask, but she also found out she has won a Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award.
Schoolgirl Kirsty Waugh has raised nearly £250,000 for childhood cancer research, even launching a global campaign, after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2024. Through her enormous efforts to raise awareness and vital funding, Davina McCall, who was also diagnosed with a brain tumour at the same time, reached out to Kirsty and they formed an unlikely friendship.
TV presenter Davina even went round to Kirsty’s house in Tunbridge Wells for a cup of tea, and the pair often message each other on WhatsApp. When Davina, a judge on hit ITV show The Masked Singer, invited her to a recording of the show, Kirsty was thrilled.
But as she sat in the audience with her mum Kate, dad Mat, and 15-year-old sister Isla, she was not expecting to be called up onto the stage in front of everyone by Davina and host Joel Dommett.
Davina announced: “My friend Kirsty’s here tonight. Will you come and join me on stage? We’ve both been going through the same thing. This was when I had my brain tumour and I had it removed. I met Kirsty then. I’ve actually arranged a bit of a surprise.”
As the man in the mask walked on, Kirsty wasn’t sure who it was at first, until he said: “I know what it takes to be king of the castle and I’m certainly no stranger to changing ends. Is it Alan Carr?” asked Kirsty nervously, as the studio audience exploded into chants of “Take it off! Take it off!”
After the reveal, Alan gave Kirsty a big hug and said: “I’m so pleased to meet you and I’ve got another surprise for you. You’ve won a Pride of Britain Award. You so deserve it.”
Afterwards, a gobsmacked Kirsty, who will receive a Child of Courage Award at our star-studded gala celebration this month, said: “That’s amazing, I’m still not processing it.” The ITV event, in partnership with P&O Cruises, celebrates the nation’s unsung heroes and includes awards for Outstanding Bravery, Special Recognition and Lifetime Achievement.
Kirsty was 10 when she began experiencing eyesight problems, memory lapses and fatigue in 2024. Then in November of that year, she was sick out of the blue and taken to hospital where an MRI scan revealed a brain tumour. She had a seven-hour operation, but surgeons were unable to remove much of the tumour, which she nicknamed Terry, so she began a 70-week course of chemotherapy.
Despite impaired vision, Kirsty had just learned to crochet and so continued by touch, creating a bunting triangle to represent every chemo session and raise funds for cancer research. Her ‘Crochet for Cancer’ campaign raised more than £120,000 for Children With Cancer UK.
She received a message of support for the campaign from diver Tom Daley, host of C4’s Game of Wool: Britain’s Best Knitter and a fellow crochet fanatic. However, at the end of last year, Kirsty was told her treatment had stopped working, though it had unexpectedly restored much of her eyesight, and she had to begin a new 85-week plan.
Undeterred by side effects including pain, hair loss, sickness and breathlessness, she launched ‘My Name Is Kirsty’, a global campaign aiming to track down her namesakes, mapping them digitally to raise funds for brain tumour research. Kirsty has already connected with more than 14,000 Kirstys across the world, in more than 50 countries and all seven continents – including a couple of famous ones, such as TV presenters Kirsty Allsopp and Kirsty Gallacher.
Donations through Kirsty’s website have already raised more than £125,000 for OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity. Davina, 59, revealed her own brain tumour diagnosis in November 2024 after a health scan which she received after giving a menopause talk.
She had a craniotomy to remove the rare 14mm colloid cyst on her brain, and later described the emotional toll of the ordeal. Davina says: “Kirsty is the most amazing, courageous, brave little girl, who just wants to help other people. I had been diagnosed with a tumour in the middle of my brain and fortunately for me, I could have it removed. Kirsty has a type of tumour that you can’t remove, which is a lot.”
Kirsty’s dad Mat, 54, a children’s author, says: “Davina got in touch and said, ‘Why don’t we meet up?’ So she came round one sunny afternoon, just popped in for tea, and spent an hour and a half with Kirsty just chatting. The connection is personal with her because she had a brain tumour. Her operation to remove her brain tumour was, we found out, on the same day that Kirsty had her first diagnosis. So it was a very serendipitous meeting.
“Davina has been incredibly supportive and still is to Kirsty. That’s the kind of stuff that makes me cry these days. It’s the kindness of other people when it’s unexpected.”
Mat adds: “Kirsty never got a headache, which is the one symptom that everyone knows about. Also as we now know, it’s a slow-growing brain tumour. So she might have had it since she was born, or for years. There’s absolutely no way to tell.
“Kirsty’s tumour is benign, but as the charities explain, ‘Benign isn’t fine’, because it’s growing in a place it can’t grow. Unfortunately about 17 weeks into the second chemo treatment, Kirsty got an allergic reaction, so we’re now waiting on a new plan.
“If it were in a different place they could have removed it and most likely she might have gone on, sailed on for the rest of her life without even thinking about it again. But because of where it is, that’s not going to be the case. So there is a path forward in which it stops growing and it is just then monitored.”
He adds: “It’s been tough. The overwhelming weight of the seriousness of what is being talked about hits her like a train every so often. It bubbles up. She’s had to cope with an ever-changing list of consequences from both the chemo and the tumour itself, however she tries to live in the moment and put a positive spin on things.
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“Kirsty loves to crochet, so that was the inspiration for her first campaign. Then when Kirsty learned about the injustice of the lack of funding for research into childhood brain tumours, even though they are a leading cause of cancer death, she really wanted to do something to help.
“She said, ‘Why don’t I just ask people called Kirsty?’ It was a real slow burn at first but now it’s genuinely gone worldwide.” Kirsty’s mum Kate, 52, a teacher, says: “We’re so proud of her. I just wish I could go through it instead of her.”
Kirsty, who also has another big sister, 18-year-old Doris, says: “I am currently in year 8. When I’m older I want to be a nurse, I want to be creative and make stuff.
“I want to be a journalist. I want to work on movies. There are so many things I want to be. I do try to live in the moment because everything’s uncertain and you don’t know what the future holds. I can’t decide that this is happening but I can decide that it’s not going to bring me down.”
*Don’t miss The Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards on Thursday 22 October at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. To connect with Kirsty or donate, visit mynameiskirsty.com
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
