Veteran performer Evelyn Strugnell gives back to Cancer Society

Veteran Palmerston North performer Evelyn Strugnell is producing a fundraising show on Saturday.

Cancer may have clipped her wings but it hasn’t kiboshed Evelyn Strugnell’s performance enthusiasm.

The Palmerston North hairdresser has been in showbiz longer than most of us have been alive.

Strugnell is producing what will probably be her last show – a variety fundraiser for the Cancer Society at the Regent on Broadway this Saturday afternoon, February 13.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, Strugnell learned during lockdown last year that despite surgery and treatment, the disease had metastasised to her upper spine, forcing her to wear a neck brace.

That hasn't stopped her gigs with Val Bolter's Spring Chickens dance troupe or with the Palmerston North Pipe Band at last month's Turakina Highland Games.

Strugnell's stage career began with dancing lessons at age 5. Ten years later she was in Sydney for a ballroom competition and scored a professional engagement at the famed Tivoli Theatre.

"One of the regular dancers was badly burned when she got too close to a heater during a rehearsal and her leotard caught fire. I had been watching them from the wings and was able to pick up their routines," Strugnell says.

"The dance captain even flew to New Zealand to ask permission from my parents."

The association with Tivoli lasted nine years.

Subsequent contracted appearances included performing as a go-go dancer for the 1960s Peter Sinclair-hosted pop-music show C'mon and its successor Happen Inn.

While at the Tivoli, Strugnell got hooked on stage magic, eventually attending the Chavez School of Magic in the United States and winning coveted international recognition for her act.

There was also her passion for pipe bands with Strugnell becoming a drum major at the tender age of 12.

"If they'd known how old I really was, I don't think they would have let me [be a drum major]."

Saturday's fundraiser combines the performer's widespread interests that embrace circus and performing animals, radio, country music, and being a pilot.

"The show is my way of raising money and awareness for the Cancer Society with people I have been associated with over my long-performing career," Strugnell says.

Headline act and co-compere is leading stage illusionist and TV broadcaster Guy Cater. He'll be joined by local magician Andrew Wilson.

Dance routines from the Spring Chickens will showcase a duet from two extraordinary senior ballet dancers, Heather Barrett and Carole Coull.

Performers include award-winning Te Reo Reka, Maximum Dance Zone, Wellington's Thistle Brae highland dancers, the Unity Singers, Celtic band Take Your Pick, and country duo Jeff and Teresa Herewini, with a finale from a combined Palmerston North pipe band.

Tickets to the 2pm Cancer Society Variety Spectacular are $5.