A brave West Yorkshire woman is preparing for the "hardest climb of her life" - tackling Mount Everest for the second time despite having incurable cancer.
Dr Shaunna Burke, 49, from Addingham, West Yorkshire, is living with stage four breast cancer, having undergone a double mastectomy and Chemotherapy. Yet hasn't stopped her from preparing to return to the Himalayas for a historic Everest expedition in Spring 2026.
Having already completed the journey in 2005 - becoming the second Canadian woman to climb the summit of Mount Everest - Shaunna is determined to "approach treatment like training" for her hardest challenge yet.
Speaking on her diagnosis, the determined Shaunna said: "I was originally diagnosed with Stage Two Breast Cancer, so I thought it was curable and kept holding onto that. But then words like 'palliative' were being used, and I remember being so shocked and perplexed, I was at the healthiest I had ever been - how had this happened?"
By trade, Shaunna is a sport and exercise scientist, working as an Associate Professor in Exercise and Health Psychology at the University of Leeds. Shaunna explained that her "ironic" career in cancer research was what helped her prepare for chemotherapy.
Shaunna said: "I had been working in a hospital setting, so I knew what it was like to work with patients but not what it was like to be one.
"I was terrified cancer was going to strip me of my being."
Throughout treatment, Shaunna refused to quit her athletic lifestyle, using her own research techniques to help her treatment: "I ran to my chemo sessions and I would walk home.
"For radiotherapy, I would run there and run back. It was not only to help me hold onto my identity, but also because my own research showed how positively it would impact treatment."
Now that she has paused chemotherapy, Shaunna is on a mission to climb Everest again in the spring of 2026. She has already started a fundraiser for Macmillan Cancer Support and is building on both her research into exercise and cancer, as well as her personal experience as a patient.
Shaunna said: "For me, it's the process which is more important than anything else. The journey has already started and it's giving me a sense of purpose and focus.
"It's a platform to raise awareness around life-limiting cancers, and I want to use it as a platform to raise money for Macmillan.
"Everyone's journey is different, but people can still lead an amazing life - even if they are diagnosed with an incurable disease - and continue to pursue their dreams, living life to the fullest."