The people of Mayo have been congratulated for successfully pinking up their county with the Centra Pink Umbrella Walk. The events, which took place across the county at the end of October, have been hailed a great achievement after local people turned out in great numbers to participate in the walk. As crowds of local people took steps to raise funds and awareness for the Irish Cancer Society’s Get the Girls campaign, the county was taken over by Centra’s fabulous pink umbrellas.
The enjoyable events raised €2,658 and were part of the 80 Centra Pink Umbrella Walks which took place nationwide, with a total of €145,000 raised for the cause overall.
Participating stores in Mayo included Centra Claremorris and Centra Crossmolina. Aside from organising the Pink Umbrella Walks, Centra is also still selling pink umbrellas and pink milk cartons in the 460 Centra convenience stores across the country. Funds generated from sales will go towards the Get the Girls campaign which funds the Irish Cancer Society’s Action Breast Cancer programme.
The Society’s Action Breast Cancer programme provides breast cancer information and support services to women across Ireland as well as funding breast cancer research. More than 60 women from Mayo were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and it is estimated that one in 10 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. The work of the society over the last 10 years has meant that women are now detecting changes at much earlier stages, leading to earlier diagnosis. As a result, some 80 per cent of women are now surviving breast cancer for five years or longer, an increase of 10.6 per cent on rates between the years 2002 and 2006.
Speaking about the Pink Umbrella Walks, John McCormack, CEO of the Irish Cancer Society, said: “I would like to thank all the customers and staff of Centra stores in Mayo who took part in the Pink Umbrella Walk. The support has been wonderful in terms of the level of awareness created and the solidarity shown in the great numbers which turned out for the event. We are also astounded by the monies raised which will help us work towards better treatments and services for women with breast cancer, as well as driving invaluable research in this area.”
For information about breast cancer or breast health visit www.cancer.ie or call the National Cancer Helpline on Freefone 1800 200 700.
