Pink mushrooms for cancer: R600 000 for Reach for Recovery
INANDA – More than R600 000 was raised for Reach for Recovery who will use the money to provide women with breast prostheses.
For the ninth year in a row, the Reach for Recovery team received a fantastic donation from the South African Mushroom Farmers Association and Pick n Pay.
Each year in October, which is breast cancer awareness month, Pick n Pay stocks pink mushroom punnets. Proceeds from these punnets go towards helping Reach for Recovery to provide prosthetic breasts for breast cancer survivors who have had a mastectomy.
This year, the proceeds from the campaign helped raise more the R600 000 Reach for Recovery, which is a voluntary organisation, believes that providing prosthetics for women can make a huge impact on survivors.
The reason for the pink mushroom punnets as a means to raise money and awareness for breast cancer is because mushrooms are linked to preventing cancer.
Reach for Recovery’s management board chairperson, Stephné Jacobs said, “Our mission is to improve a woman’s quality of life after a diagnosis…We try to carve through the dark mountains of disappointment and despair and invite them to our breast clinic where they can be fitted with a prosthesis.”
The prosthesis is called a Ditto which means the ‘same as’. Worn inside a bra, the prosthesis passes a ‘hug test’ and looks and feels completely natural. Jacobs added that in the past year they have helped provide 540 women with a Ditto. Since 2011, more than 5 000 women have been assisted by Reach for Recovery.
Heleen Meyer, a food consultant, highlighted the benefits of eating mushrooms, and healthily in general. She highlighted that there were a variety of ways to include mushrooms in a diet that offer an incredible nutritional benefit.
Jacobs concluded that she was incredibly excited that through the partnership with Pick n Pay and the South African Mushroom Farmers Association they have been able to create the prosthesis in three different skin tones so that each woman is able to get a prosthesis that resembles her skin colour.
In the future, Reach for Recovery hopes to offer a prosthesis which will stick directly to the skin.
