Power of Pink celebrates a decade

The Power of Pink campaign, aimed at raising awareness and funds for women living with breast cancer, celebrated 10 years of incredible outreach with a cheque handover to the Reach for Recovery initiative on 31 January in Illovo.

According to Reach for Recovery management board chairperson, Stephné Jacobs, the growth of the campaign has exceeded all of her expectations. “When we first launched the Power of Pink campaign with the South African Mushroom Farmers’ Association (Samfa) and Pick n Pay in October 2010 we had no idea of the power we would unleash through our incredible partners nor the extent of the success that lay ahead,” she said.

When the campaign first launched, it raised just over R320 000. “Today I can say, with enormous gratitude, that our achievements through this campaign have been nothing more than miraculous. Now we consistently raise more than R500 000 a year.”

The campaign has raised a total of R5 177 628 between 2010 and 2019 with a total of 6 523 financially challenged women assisted with silicone prostheses (excluding 2019).

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“We are extremely delighted to have achieved the R5-million mark in the 10th year of the Power of Pink campaign,” said Samfa chairperson Ross Richardson.

“This Pink campaign is one of very few breast cancer fundraising campaigns that support survivors who cannot afford reconstructions after mastectomies. Samfa and Pick n Pay value our partnership with Reach for Recovery and are in awe of this 100 per cent volunteer-based NGO and the extent of the incredible work that they do,” Richardson added.

Reach for Recover South Africa consists of only 210 active voluntary members who are breast cancer warriors themselves.

These powerful women have achieved the following during 2019:

• They supported 5 923 patients in hospitals and through continued visits thereafter
• They handed out 3 013 care bags with support items and information leaflets to post-operative breast cancer patients in hospitals
• They fitted 666 state patients who had a mastectomy and no medical aid with prostheses at no cost.

“We have done more than we thought we could but having reached this milestone, we can just see how much we still have to because there are thousands of women in dire circumstances and in desperate need of our support,” Jacobs concluded.

Details: Stephanie van Deventer nationalmanager@reach4recovery.org.za

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