People are Wearing it Pink today for Breast Cancer Now -the research and care charity helping everyone affected now and in the future.

Steered by research and powered by care, Breast Cancer Now’s ambition is that, by 2050, everyone who develops breast cancer will live and be supported to live well.

Breast Cancer Now funds around a third of breast cancer research in the UK. By working with almost 340 of the brightest minds in breast cancer research, the charity is helping discover how to prevent more cases, save more lives and enable more women to live well with the disease.

What is Wear It Pink?

Wear it Pink is one of the UK’s biggest fundraising events. Each year thousands of people across the UK wear pink and fundraise for Breast Cancer Now.

This year, 2021, is its 20th year, with over £36 million raised since 2002.

However you wear it pink this October, you can help to make sure that our life-saving research and life-changing care continues. From pulling on something pink at home, to raising money with a pink event, your support will mean we can continue to be here for anyone affected by breast cancer.

People affected by breast cancer need us, and they need you too. Since March 2020, the doors to hundreds of our community support events have had to close and our researchers were kept out of their labs for 100 days or more. It’s taken away vital lifelines from people that need them, and our research is at risk of slowing.

That’s why we’ve only become more determined to make sure we’re there to support people when they need us, and help make the breakthroughs in research that will continue to drive forward progress. Together we can wear pink, raise money and help make life-changing breast cancer research and care happen.

Summer Kendrick, Wear It Pink manager at Breast Cancer Now, said: “The coronavirus pandemic has had a huge impact on Breast Cancer Now’s ability to deliver the progress and support that people affected by breast cancer rely on us for now more than ever.

“Breast cancer hasn’t stopped for the pandemic. Over the past year people have been diagnosed with the disease at a time when everything from treatment to screenings have been disrupted, making the support that we provide, and the hope our research generates, a vital lifeline.

“That’s why we’ve only become more determined to make sure we’re there to support people when they need us. And more determined to make the breakthroughs in research that will continue to drive forward progress. People affected by breast cancer need us – and they need you too.

“It’s never been more important to wear it pink on Friday 22 October.”

Explaining why she will be wearing pink for Breast Cancer Now on Wear It Pink day is Kendra, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 202.

She says: “In October 2020, I was diagnosed with stage two invasive lobular breast cancer. I was chosen by the local health authority to be part of a trial, and it’s scary to think – if I hadn’t agreed to take part, I would have remained undiagnosed. I had no symptoms at all, and as the first woman in my family to receive a breast cancer diagnosis, it was very unexpected.

“Raising money for Breast Cancer Now is so important. It gives you an opportunity to contribute to vital breast cancer research and care, and to help keep breast cancer at the forefront of people’s minds.

“I’ll be wearing it pink to show support and stand in solidarity with those living with, through or beyond a breast cancer diagnosis. For those we’ve lost, those who’ve lost someone they love, and those who continue to need support.”

How to take part in Wear It Pink

If there ever was a time to put on that pink top, proudly drape that pink feather boa around your neck or pull up those pink socks, it’s now!

Wear pink on Friday, October 22, raise money and help make life-saving breast cancer research and life-changing care happen. Sign-up today atwww.wearitpink.org

Whatever your Wear it

Pink day looks like, we ask that you follow Government guidelines above all else and only do what is right and safe for you and those around you.

Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer, with around 55,000 women and 370 men being diagnosed each year. An estimated 600,000 people in the UK are alive after a diagnosis of breast cancer, and one in seven women will develop the disease in their lifetime.

Despite decades of progress in research and care, around 11,500 women and 80 men still die from the disease every year in the UK, with hundreds of thousands more living with the devastating, long-term physical and emotional impacts of the disease.

Breast Cancer Now was launched in October 2019, through the merger of specialist support and information charity Breast Cancer Care and leading research charity Breast Cancer Now. The charity’s award-winning information and services are there to make sure anyone diagnosed with breast cancer can get the support they need to live well with impacts of the disease.

Anyone looking for support or information can call Breast Cancer Now’s free Helpline on 0808 800 6000.For more information on Breast Cancer Now’s work, visit breastcancernow.orgor follow us on Twitter or on Facebook.