MEET the drag queens who are fighting cancer – and looking fabulous while doing it.

Cancer IsADrag is a charity thatmarries serious fundraising with some classic, camp, end-of-the-pier entertainment that blurs gender roles in a shower of sequins, heels and lippy.

It is a national charity born from a story of survival.

Founder Alan Bugg was diagnosed with Grade4Non- Hodgkins Lymphoma in September 2010.

After nine cycles of chemotherapy, Alan found himself still battling the disease and struggling financially tomake ends meet.

From talking to other cancer sufferers, he realised how little help there was and in 2012 formed his charity, Cancer Is A Drag, employing his own act, Diva Vera, asamoney-spinning gimmick.

Now the movement has spread to our county.

Eany Gardner, 30, from Leigh, is ambassador of Cancer IsADrag Essex.

He has performed all around, recently launching the Phoenix GayNight in Colchester and clubs and pubs in Basildon, Southend and beyond.

Eany spends his days wearing trousers and otherwise unexceptional clobber, working as a retail manager.

By night he transforms into Queany, a headstrong, dry-witted and, crucially, family-friendly, diva.

“Queany completely differs to Eany,” he explains.

“She is very humorous, very witty and sillywithout being vulgar. That’s why I’ve had my picture taken with OAPs and little children.”

Eany began performing in the Cliff pub in Southend with a nervous cabaret act in front of 15 people.

“I was so nervous I saw hundreds of people in the crowd that night,” he admits.

These days, his transformation takes little more than 15 minutes, but back then, when eyeliner and blusher were stillamystery to be solved, he would spend up to four hours perfecting his look.

“When I go shopping for myself, I like to have a cheeky look at the girls’ section and think ‘that’s nice, what could I do with that’,” he says.

“I’ll see a sparkly dress and stick that inmy basket as well.

“It was awkward in the early days, but nowno-one bats an eyelid.”

Drag has a long standing in the lineage of performance.

Actors in Shakespearean plays, and all Elizabethan theatre, were famously all male, with female roles played by young men in drag.

The term“drag queen” first emerged in print as late as 1941, where the prefix “drag” is an abbreviated formof “dressed as girl”.

Queen is slang relating to homosexuality and theatrical campness, personified in drag queen tradition by outlandish clothes, exuberant make-up, wigs and prosthetics.

The act combines a comedy stand-up routine with music, dance, cabaret and a healthy dose of cheekiness – but that doesn’t mean it has to be crude or overtly sexual.

“I have seen people get it completelywrong,” says Eany.

“Some take it too seriously and forget the glam and tack – you need that. Others go too adult and crude.”

Drag acts are big on the LGBT scene as a symbol of empowerment and a cartoonish satire on prescribed gender roles.

But the act itself does not have to be about sex or sexuality at all, as Eany explains.

“There are gay queens and there are straight queens, there are married queens and female queens,” he says.

“I know a straight builder, a great 20-stone bloke, who performs in a leather miniskirt and boob tube of an evening.

“We have strong links with the LGBT community, and we’re very proud of that – some transexuals start in drag as a way of exploring that side of things.

“But our show is good fun for good causes and people love it.

Drag is totally unique and that’s why people enjoy it.”

Youmight expect drag to be a hit among a rowdy hen dos and children’s parties, but equally fun and surprising is the reaction from the laddish set.

“They can be the best crowds,” says Eany.

“I performed for a load of squaddies and my fake bosoms have never had so much attention. I’ve been asked out by blokes as Queanymore times than I’ve had hot dinners.

“I always say to them ‘keep your hands off. I’m fed up, not hard up!’”