Think pink this October for Breast Cancer Awareness month

Naomi Fitzgibbon, Cancer Information Service Manager, Irish Cancer Society, from Dublin, Sybil Mulcahy, Journalist and presenter, from Dublin and Claire Fergus, Irish Cancer Society funded Breast Cancer Researcher, from Dublin pictured at the launch of the Irish Cancer Society's new Get the Girls campaign, kindly supported by Centra.

Eve Sherlock

Pink is the colour of the season as October sees the relaunch of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Both the Marie Keating foundation and Action Breast Cancer are holding fundraising events throughout the month with similar themes that see women being encouraged to talk to each other about breast care.

GetTheGirls.ie, sponsored by Centra, was launched by Action Breast Cancer this month to encourage women to get their friends over for a girls’ night in aid of the charity, whether it be a dinner party or a movie night, they want women to get together to talk about breast health and raise money.

Irish Cancer Society branches, such as the shop on Camden St., will also be selling pink ribbons for two euro in aid of the campaign.

“We expect to have a few thousand volunteers around the country collecting and selling pink ribbons on 5^th October,” said Donna Parsons, PR for the Irish Cancer Society. The charity invested €700,000 in breast cancer research last year and aims to raise €670,000 from this year’s October campaign.

The Marie Keating foundation is kicking off its campaign on October 7^th in the Phoenix Park in partnership with Go Ahead for a 5km ‘Walk for Life’; you can visit www.mariekeating.ie to register now.  This will kick-start the foundation’s ‘Look after your girls’ campaign which is encouraging women to talk to their friends about their experiences of breast care with the goal of strengthening knowledge of the disease through shared experience.

Europa Donna Ireland are a patient advocacy group and are holding a free talk in the Central Hotel on Exchequer Street, at 7pm on October 9^th, to inform women about becoming their own health advocate and training them on what they need to know about breast health in terms of treatment and support.

A free event will be held in St.Vincent’s University Hospital to mark World Breast Reconstruction Day on October 17^th.