Ghost Hunter Hopes To Raise Funds For Cancer Research By Braving The UK's Most Haunted Places

A South Yorkshire paranormal investigator is set to embark on a series of solo ghost hunts at some of the country's most haunted locations in order to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Mark Gallagher's charitable venture will see him stream his paranormal investigations live on his Facebook page, That Paranormal Thing. He hopes that his jumps and scares will directly translate into much-needed funs for the British charity.

Mark set up his page after his family was hit with some worrying news. A few months ago Mark's father was diagnosed with cancer. Luckily in his case it was caught early and is treatable, but left Mark feeling like he wanted to do more for those affected by the illness.

Cancer affects everyone at some point in their lives and Mark's own personal story inspired him to try to help others like his dad by doing the thing he loves the most - ghost hunting. He's collecting money for the charity via a dedicated JustGiving page so that those who are able to donate can be sure the funds will go straight to the charity.

The Barnsley based investigator joined Jayne Mortimore and Lorien Jones on their weekly YouTube discussion show, The Ghost Voice to talk about his worthy project.

Mark, who has been investigating things that go bump in the night for more than five years, told the hosts how difficult it was finding out about his dad's illness. He said, "we didn't know the severity of it at that point, it was kind of a waiting game. We knew what it got, but we didn't know how far, if there was anything they could do or anything like that - a horrible time really."

Luckily, there was good news on the horizon, as Mark explained, "we soon had good news that it is treatable and he's soon going to be having an operation to remove it, thank god." But the scare prompted Mark to use his passion for the paranormal to try and do all he could to help other families going through similar uncertain times.

He said, "at that point I realised I could help, just slightly, by combining my love for the paranormal and raising money for an amazing cause." Jayne and Lorien laughed as Mark confessed to them, "the funny thing is, my dad doesn't even believe in ghosts."

Jayne and Lorien had brought Mark on to the show to help him in his efforts to bring in donations. Up until now Mark has been braving abandoned locations across the country in search of spooks alone, and Jayne wanted to know if he ever gets scared investigating these places on his own. Mark said, "some things make me scared, you know, even though you're looking for it. Any kind of contact can catch you off guard a little bit."

Mark started his exploration of the paranormal alongside Kyle Thompson of Soul Reaper Paranormal and admitted to being 50/50 on the existence of the paranormal back then, but now says he is much less skeptical. He explained, "the things that I've seen, especially when I was with Soul Reaper, there's no explaining in a normal context."

Having now gone solo, Mark's on the hunt for others to collaborate with and help him on his mission. Jayne and Lorien hoped that their network and followers of The Ghost Voice might be able to help out. Mark said he would work with any "genuine teams or investigators," but what Mark didn't know was that the hosts had a few surprises up their sleeves.

The first surprise was a video message from Danny Moss, star of 'Paranormal Captured' and 'The Haunted Hunts'. Danny told the surprised fundraiser how he'd like to help him with his cause. In the short video clip Danny told Mark, "I'd like to personally invite you to Tatton Old Hall whenever you're available on one of the Haunted Hunts' public investigations there."

The generous offer to investigate at Danny and the team's base of operation, would also include the chance for Mark to spend some time ghost hunting there alone.

The next video message was from another familiar face. Mark admitted that he was a fan of the Discovery+ series, 'Help! My House Is Haunted', so was excited when one of its stars, Barri Ghai, appeared on his screen in a pre-recorded video.

Barri, who also runs public ghost hunting events said, "I've heard all about your fundraising venture and I want to wish you the best of luck with everything. As a small way of supporting you I'd like to offer you the opportunity to come and attend one of my paranormal events next year."

A similar offer came in another video message from Haunted Magazine's Paul Stevenson, who said "I just think it's amazing combining your passion for ghost hunting and all things paranormal with raising money for a charity, that's close to your heart, is a wonderful thing. So on behalf of everybody associated with Haunted Magazine, good luck." Paul promised that the award-winning mag would help with the cause where possible and invited Mark to join them on a ghost hunt in 2022.

Mark, who was "blown away" by all of this said, "I'm touched, that's amazing thank you very much," but there was still more to come and the roll call of names supporting Mark's charity venture continued.

Hazel Ford from Haunted Happenings, one of the UK's biggest paranormal events companies, invited Mark to come along to one of her locations for a ghost hunt, while Richard Felix offered Mark the chance to spend a night at his legendary haunted jail in Derby.

Jayne, who heads up the paranormal team Haunted Cornwall, used her local connections to secure Mark a night behind bars at the infamous Bodmin Jail, a haunted location that was already high on Mark's bucket list of places to investigate.

Mark said he'd also love to investigate the sinister 30 East Drive in Pontefract, Gloucestershire's Ancient Ram Inn, and another Cornish location - the Jamaica Inn.

Jayne ended the one-hour live stream by urging viewers to back Mark's efforts and donate if they could. The Cornish ghost hunter said, "we've tried to bring together all the amazing people that have sent us messages for you to help give you push on your way."

Lorien, the creator of the website, The Ghost Book, added, "if you can't donate, equally as important is just to share the page because the more people share it, the more people obviously see it and can come across and enjoy the content and then donate if they feel obliged, if they're in a situation that allows them to do so."

Clearly touched and overwhelmed by the events of the live stream, Mark said "thank you all very much for everything." He encouraged the paranormal community, "please go and check out the page and if you can spare anything at all it is greatly appreciated." You can find Mark on Facebook as That Paranormal Thing.

If you can, please consider donating at justgiving.com. By supporting Cancer Research UK you will be helping to bring forward the day all cancers are cured. It's through donations from people like you that help fund the charities life-saving research.

If you missed Mark on The Ghost Voice, you can watch it back in full here.