Keeping Abreast to offer advice to Chapelfield Shoppers

On Friday 19th October, staff and volunteers from Norfolk based charity, Keeping Abreast, will be at Chapelfield Shopping Centre all day to help raise awareness of the work they do with women throughout the UK with breast cancer.

As part of the work they are doing throughout October, which is national breast cancer awareness month, the Keeping Abreast team will have a stand courtesy of Chapelfield and will be handing out vital self-checking leaflets and information on the disease. Visitors to their tradmark bright pink stand will also have the opportunity to meet with patients who have been through or are currently battling breast cancer, and have had or are about to undergo surgery, and talk to them about their experiences.

Victoria White, Fundraising & Development Manager, explained “One of the most successful elements of Keeping Abreast is our flashing service, which gives women who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, the opportunity to see the options for surgery, on real women who have been through a similar experience. It gives women who are struggling to come to terms with having the disease, let alone the daunting options they are faced with in surgery, the chance to share their thoughts and feelings, as well as receiving vital practiual advice, which might help them in their own journey.

Chapelfield’s general manager Davina Tanner said: 'Chapelfield is so pleased to be working with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on this hugely beneficial range of health awareness campaigns.

Throughout the day, our team will be available to anyone who wishes to discuss their own expeirence, whether as someone who has had the disease themselves or who has a loved one with breast cancer. In addition, our aim is to raise awareness of the importance of self-checking for lumps, which aids the doctors in early diagnosis, as well as the work that Keeping Abreast does.”

For more information about Keeping Abreast or to find out more about any of their fundraising events, please contact Victoria White by telephone on 07799 258084 or e-mail victoriawhite@keepingabreast.org.uk or visit http://www.keepingabreast.org.uk/norwich-group

Notes for editors

Established in September 2007, Keeping Abreast works to assist the lives and wellbeing of patients who are struggling psychologically with their individual diagnosis of breast cancer. The charity holds regular support groups both in Norwich, as well as in their regional branches throughout the UK, in King’s Lynn, East Grinstead, Bristol & the South West. Founded by Anna Beckingham and Beverley Birritteri, both breast cancer patients themselves, and Ruth Harcourt, a specialist Breast Reconstruction nurse, the charity recognises a need for women, both newly diagnosed with breast cancer facing the possibility of mastectomy, and also women further down the line who are considering reconstructive surgery, to be able to meet, talk and view reconstructed breasts with women who have been through similar experiences.