'Drag literally saved my life': Performer who started drag whilst on chemotherapy to make Manchester Pride debut
A drag queen who credits performing with saving their life is to make their Manchester Pride debut this weekend. Jay Swinnerton, who performs as drag queen Shanika Sunrise, was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin Lymphoma at the age of 19 in 2017.
Originally from Sandbach in Cheshire, their drag persona was born during cancer treatment as a way to take their mind off things. “I started to get worn out all the time and I had initially thought it was just because I was doing 100 things at once, but it turned out that it was cancer,” Jay, now 26, who was studying history at Warwick University at the time, explains. Join our FREE LGBTQ+ WhatsApp group by clicking here “For a 19-year-old - for something like that to happen - was both a derailing and a shocking moment.
I didn’t know how to deal with it. “As I was going through chemotherapy and losing my hair, my friends had rallied together and bought me a drag wig from Luvyababes in the Arndale.
I just put it on and saw it as the perfect opportunity to make something fun and camp out of a horrendous experience so Shanika was born.” As they continued to undergo cancer treatment, Jay would take part in drag competitions in Canal Street bars whilst learning to craft their makeup and performance skills. “I definitely used drag as a coping mechanism to make light of the situation,” they explain.
