To mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, M&S have invited seven inspiring women who have been affected by breast cancer to model their new pink bra collection. 20% of pink bra sales will be donated to Breast Cancer Now throughout October.
This October, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, M&S will be sharing the words and experiences of seven inspirational women – who have all been affected by breast cancer – in a campaign to help raise awareness of its partnership with Breast Cancer Now and raise funds for vital research. The money raised throughout October will contribute to M&S’s ongoing goal to help prevent 9,000 cases of breast cancer a year by 2025.
The seven women – Emi Lou Howe, Katie Hughes, Laura Otrofanowei, Helen Peedell, Hayley Rock, Heather Shekede and Lesley Stephen – have been invited by M&S to front its nationwide campaign across its stores and online channels and will model items from M&S’s range of pink bras.
To kick-start the campaign, the women have drawn on their own personal experiences to create a short film, ‘Love, Laughter, Life and Breast Cancer: In Our Words’. The video curates the words each of the women use to describe their individual attitudes and approach to a life affected by breast cancer – focusing on the experiences, people and things that matter to them.
Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive of Breast Cancer Now said: “We are so proud that these seven amazing and inspirational women – Heather, Helen, Laura, Katie, Lesley, Hayley and Emi Lou – have come together for this year’s M&S Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign. It is very poignant to hear them share their personal experiences of breast cancer, while helping to raise awareness of and money for Breast Cancer Now’s research.
“We would like to thank M&S and its customers for their continued and dedicated support in raising vital funds for Breast Cancer Now. Money raised in October, and beyond, will enable our scientists to undertake world-class research which could eventually lead to preventing the disease occurring in the first place, sparing women and their loved ones the fear, uncertainty and despair a breast cancer diagnosis can bring.
“We hope women across the UK will head in-store or online this October and purchase a pink bra to help support our vital research.”
First announced in 2015, M&S and Breast Cancer Now aim to raise £13 million over five years in a bid to prevent 9,000 cases of breast cancer a year by 2025. This will play a part in Breast Cancer Now’s wider goal to reduce breast cancer cases by 30% by 2050.
Jo Jenkins, Director of Womenswear, Lingerie and Beauty at M&S says: “The words of these seven magnificent women are truly inspirational, but we want this campaign to have a direct impact on the fight against breast cancer and hopefully, prevent other women from having to undergo similar experiences. We know this is a cause that matters deeply to our customers and colleagues – and together we want to continue to raise vital funds for Breast Cancer Now’s incredible research.”
M&S is the UK’s market leader in lingerie, with over one in three bras bought in the UK purchased at M&S. For the whole of October, 20% of sales from 27 pink bras across its lingerie range, including post-surgery bras with specifically developed features for women who have undergone surgery, will be donated to Breast Cancer Now.
The money raised will help fund Breast Cancer Now’s scientific research to better understand the risk factors associated with breast cancer. It is hoped this will lead to the development of a risk assessment tool that ultimately will better inform women of the options available to them based on their personal risk of breast cancer in the future and allow them to act to reduce that risk.
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer in the UK. Women in the UK have, on average, a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer in their lifetime.
Links
http://www.marksandspencer.com/c/style-and-living/breast-cancer-now-feature
http://www.marksandspencer.com/l/lingerie/breast-cancer-now/breast-cancer-now-pink-bras
