Catch up TV

Episode 08 October 2024

With a party in a Cornish cathedral featuring Dawn French (dressed as a vicar), Fearne Cotton, a cardboard coffin, and hundreds of friends, Kris Hallenga’s 'FUN-eral' (living funeral) is the opening of a documentary that tells the story of Britain’s most famous and vivacious cancer campaigner.\n\nDiagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer at 23, Kris Hallenga makes a radical decision about what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Together with her twin sister, Maren, Kris starts the Coppafeel charity, harnessing the power of her own experience to show millions of young people how to check for signs of cancer. \n\nIn 2013, Kris made a film about her life for the BBC, and over the decade that followed, she continued to invite the cameras back in. Through unseen home footage and intimate material shot by director Neil Bonner, the film follows Kris from her early years to her very last days. We follow Kris through the highs and lows of multiple treatments while she wins a Pride of Britain Award, discovers how to recruit famous faces into the campaign, gets cancer awareness onto the school curriculum and saves many lives through early detection. \n\nKris fundamentally changes the world around her, and all the while she is inseparable from her twin sister and best friend Maren as they face every challenge with refreshing honesty, relentless energy and wicked humour. \n\nThe touching and unforgettable story is a heartfelt guide to truly embracing every second of life we are given.

Source: BBC 2