Fun buys aid cancer battle
Sep 29 2007 by Audrey Barton, The Journal
A BREAST cancer survivor is urging people to indulge their fashion flair to raise money for vital research.
Trish Alexander, of Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, helped launch a pink party highlighting the range of products on sale to support Cancer Research UK’s All Join Together campaign.
The campaign aims to make all women aware of their risk of breast cancer and raise funds to tackle the disease, which is now the most common cancer in the UK.
The grandmother-of-one was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2004. She found a small lump in her breast during her monthly self-examination, went to see her GP immediately and was referred to a consultant for tests which revealed she had cancer.
At the time she was diagnosed, Trish was coping with the loss of a close friend, Susan Dixon, who had died from cancer 10 months earlier, aged 37.
Trish said: “Discovering I had cancer was the worst day of my life. I thought I would meet the same fate as Susan. I had to wait about 10 days for surgery and I was so anxious I wasn’t able to sleep.”
The 50-year-old was treated with a lumpectomy followed by six weeks of radiotherapy and she will be taking the drug Tamoxifen for five years. She believes that breast cancer has changed her life. Prior to her diagnosis, she hardly ever went out. But after coping with the treatment, she is determined to make the most of every day.
“I’m never going to be able to forget that I’ve had cancer.
“But these days I live life to the full. I never take a day for granted. Before I was diagnosed, I hardly ever went out.
“Now I get out and live life. I’m doing a lot of positive things I would never have done before.”
Now she is encouraging people to pop into their local Peacocks store during October, breast cancer awareness month, and pick up some of the fun, fashionable and eye-catching products on sale to support Cancer Research UK.
A donation from the sale of each product will be given to Cancer Research UK.
To find out more about Cancer Research UK’s All Join Together Campaign and register for a fundraising pack, visit www.cancerresearchuk. org/breastcancer or call on 0870 160-2040.
