Drag Race's Ella Vaday expects ‘magical journey’ on 100km charity trek across Northumberland

A RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star will embark on a 100km trek across Northumberland for a breast cancer charity.

Drag star Ella Vaday is among the celebrities preparing to take part in the "CoppaTrek" event for charity CoppaFeel!, which will take them on a 62-mile venture across Northumberland.

Other famous faces, who will lead teams of up to 30 people for five days across Northumberland from June 10-16, include 2020 I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! winner Giovanna Fletcher.

The aim of the event is to increase awareness about breast cancer and and to raise £1 million for the charity.

Ella Vaday, who was a runner-up in series three of the UK version of the drag competition RuPaul’s Drag Race, will be a celebrity captain for the challenge in Hadrian’s Wall Country.

She said she was inspired to take on the challenge by her own mother’s experience of breast cancer, from which she has now recovered.

She said: "I think (the trek) is going to be such a magical sort of journey.

"It’s just a really nice moment, to celebrate my mum’s journey through her cancer battle.

"It’s going to be physically really tough, but I think being surrounded by really positive, happy people who want to hear your story and to share their own story, I think it’s going to be such a lovely moment.

"As someone that’s in the public eye, there’s so much that we do that means nothing, so it’s nice to do things that actually mean something.

"I know some of my sisters, especially from my season, have done some charity work, or at least work that means something to them."

Ella Vaday said she works with CoppaFeel! because it is a charity that "covers all bases" and is not gender-specific.

She added: "In the industry I work in these days, it’s so important not to assume someone’s gender (or) whatever they want to call their breast, whether it’s chest, pecs, boobs.

"People forget that men can get breast cancer too, everyone has breast tissue.

"CoppaFeel! work with younger people to be able to identify when there are changes, and I think that’s so important because I think you forget when you’re young that it can happen at any stage."

The 34-year-old is hoping to inspire more drag queens to be "passionate" about charity work.

She said: "I do feel like if you’re going to do something, you really have to want to do it and be passionate about it."

She added "I don’t think I ever will" adjust to the fame that has come from RuPaul’s Drag Race and said the representation it has provided for the LGBTQ+ community is "mind-blowing" compared with the last 10 years.

Ella Vaday, better known as Nick Collier, who is gay, said he "didn’t really understand" who he was until he was 20.

He said: "As a young person, I never had any representation of myself on television.

"So something like Drag Race, where you see many, many different stories from different people who identify in a different way, who are different genders, races, and that’s all played out to a whole family audience nowadays.

"I feel like young people now are far more represented than I ever was, and I think that’s just brilliant."

However, he added: "There’s always further to go. We need to see drag kings, more people of different abilities. In terms of what’s needed to do in the queer land, loads more to do, but Drag Race has definitely helped."

While the forthcoming trek may prove to be a physical challenge, the star said it will be "such an achievement".

"I’ve never done anything like this before. I hate cardio, to be honest. So this is going to be a real test of everyone’s spirit."

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