By Áine Leech
Shades of pink will be spotted around Mullingar this week in the lead up to Paint it Pink Day, which takes places this Friday, 2 October. The colourful day by the Irish Cancer Society takes place as part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research.
As part of the build up to the event, and to increase awareness of the need for funds to deliver research for breast cancer, several of the ladies’ clothes shops in Mullingar will “Go Pink” this week by displaying their windows with pink Balloons, window paint and display pink themed outfits.
As usual, volunteers will be collecting throughout the town of Mullingar for most of the day next Friday. Speaking to Topic, one of the event organisers, Marie O’Toole acknowledged the great support from the town for the very worthy cause. “Year on year the collections have doubled overall for the funding for breast cancer research. October is breast cancer awareness month and we wanted to spread the message and get awareness out there through this ‘paint the town’ campaign.”
As the largest voluntary funder of cancer research in Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society has committed €7.5 million to BREAST-PREDICT, a collaborative cancer research centre established by the Irish Cancer Society to focus specifically on breast cancer. Statistically, 1 in 10 women in Ireland will get breast cancer at some point in their lifetime, so this initiative aims to increase the pace of discoveries in the breast cancer field.
‘Paint it Pink’ is the Irish Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Campaign, encouraging people across Ireland to hold their own pink fundraiser events to raise vital life-saving funds supporting breast cancer research and support services. Mullingar’s Paint it Pink Day committee in conjunction with a large number of ladies’ retail outlets in the town, are turning their shop fronts pink to mark this event.
Volunteers will be out on the street on the day, looking for donations and support. If you want to get involved contact Marie O’Toole via Irish Cancer Society on 1850 606060.
