A Redrock farmer who promised his dying sister-in-law that he would “do something” for cancer has raised £67,465 for Friends of Cancer Centre through an unusual heifer raffle.
George McCall, known affectionately as “Geordie”, has since received the prestigious Community Hero Award at the Spirit of NI awards, held in partnership with Ulster Bank. The recognition follows a year of fundraising inspired by June Humphries, his sister-in-law and a former St Catherine’s Grammar School teacher.
June died from cancer in March 2024. In the period before her death, George and his family visited her in hospital every day before she returned home for several days. During those final conversations, June asked George to organise her funeral and repeatedly told him that she wanted him to do something, although she never explained exactly what.
A promise remembered
George said the request stayed with him. In 2025, he told his wife and son that the family should do something to support people affected by cancer. The family had built a strong reputation over the years for breeding pedigree cattle, so George suggested that he could give a heifer to raise money.
“Before June died, we were going in every day to the hospital to see her and then she got home for a few days.”
The first idea was to take the animal to auction in Ballymena. George believed that an auction might raise about £4,000, particularly as the heifer might not achieve her full value when buyers knew that the proceeds were being donated to charity.
His son’s wife proposed an alternative: raffle the heifer rather than sell her at the mart. George agreed, but the plan required practical preparation. He secured a licence from the council, arranged for tickets to be printed and worked out the logistics before beginning to sell tickets for £10 each.
Most of the ticket sales were made door-to-door. George admitted that it was difficult to stay motivated at the beginning, but one conversation in particular changed the way he approached the campaign.
St Catherine’s connection gave the campaign momentum
When George called at one house, he knew the young woman’s father but did not know her. She paid £10 for a ticket and asked why he was organising the raffle. George explained that the person who had inspired him had taught at St Catherine’s and had died.
“I told her the person who motivated me to do this taught in St Catherine’s and she died. She looked at me and said, ‘June Humphries’?”
The woman took back the £10 and handed George £20 instead. She then encouraged him to continue along the road, telling him that people would support the cause. George followed her advice, visiting every house, and said that people contributed rather than refusing him.
“She told me, ‘George, you go on up that road and I promise you, you’ll not be refused.”
When George later saw the young woman after the raffle had finished, he tried to thank her. She pushed his hand aside and hugged him. He told her that her encouragement had helped him keep going and complete the fundraiser.
The raffle ultimately raised £67,465. The man who won the prize decided not to take the heifer, meaning that she stayed with George. Rather than use the charitable proceeds to provide an alternative prize, George paid the winner £2,500 from his own pocket. The money raised through the raffle was therefore preserved for Friends of Cancer Centre.
George said all the funds were given to the charity to support its work, in memory of family members and other people who had been lost to cancer.
George’s own experience of cancer
The fundraiser also reflected George’s personal experience of the disease. His diagnosis followed a farming accident in which he blacked out and fell into a slurry tank on his yard. He had already been experiencing intermittent blackouts, and his son, also named George, rescued him from the tank and alerted the emergency services.
When George told medical staff about the blackouts, they carried out further exploratory tests. Those tests discovered a tumour on his liver. He underwent an operation at the Mater Hospital in Belfast to remove the cancerous part of the liver, and said that thankfully he is now well.
“A consultant actually said to me, ‘You’re a very lucky man that fell in that slurry tank!’”
George said cancer had affected his family profoundly, with seven close family members dying from the disease.
The Community Hero Award was dedicated to his son and his nephew, Alan Humphries. George also stressed that the fundraiser could not have happened without the generosity of people in the local community and further afield.
Among the examples he recalled was a man he met at a wake who asked about buying raffle tickets. George did not have any tickets with him that day, so the man asked him to call at his home. About a month later, George remembered the invitation and stopped at the house while the man was away lambing. The man’s wife invited him inside to wait, and when the man returned they sat and talked before he wrote a cheque for the tickets.
George told him to make the cheque payable to Friends of Cancer Centre. He put it in his pocket without looking at the amount until he got home, where he discovered that it was a four-figure sum.
He also recalled meeting a woman in Milford while selling tickets. During their conversation, they discovered that both their families came from the Seagahan area. The woman had lost six members of her own family to cancer and was keen to support the cause.
George said the fundraising had shown him the best of humanity and that he had enjoyed every moment of it. He thanked Rachael for nominating him for the Spirit of NI awards and dedicated the award to those who supported the campaign.
He intends to organise another fundraiser in the future, although he has not yet decided what form it will take. As he considers the next idea, he has invited suggestions to help inspire Armagh’s new Community Hero.