M&S want to help fight breast cancer by getting women moving
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month [Photo: Getty]
When it comes to being breast cancer aware, we know we should be regularly checking our boobs (you are, aren’t you?) but did you realise that there’s something else that could help? According to experts at a leading breast cancer charity just 30 minutes of exercise a day can reduce the risk of the disease by up to 20 per cent.
To help spread the get-active word, Marks and Spencer has teamed up with Breast Cancer Now and enlisted the help of seven inspirational women, whose lives have been affected by breast cancer, to model the its new sports-wear range. The high street chain will also be donating 10% of all sales from women’s fitness clothing and sports bras to Breast Cancer Now this October, breast cancer awareness month.
According to recent statistics breast cancer is still the most common cancer in the UK. Nearly 700,000 people living in the UK have experienced a diagnosis and one in eight women will face it in their lifetime. This year alone, more than 50,000 women will be told they have the disease.
And despite continuous efforts to reduce it, the UK still has one of the lowest breast cancer survival rates in Western Europe. This year alone around 11,500 women and 80 men will sadly lose their lives to the disease. But Breast Cancer Now has some big ambitions to change this. By bringing together all those affected by the disease to fund research, share knowledge and find answers, they hope that by 2050 everyone who develops breast cancer will live.
It’s a hope that’s avidly shared by the seven women chosen by M&S to spread the #letsgetmoving message. Amanda Jones, 74, Fiona Coaton, 30, Lindsay Partridge, 52, Miranda Ashitey, 34, Sarah Falola, 44, Sera Bains, 45 and Mandie Stevenson, 26 will be sharing video diaries on how to embrace the recommended 30 minutes daily activity whilst telling their own empowering stories on social media.
Like Fiona Coaton’s who at the age of 27 had a double mastectomy after discovering she carried the well-known BRCA1 gene mutation, which significantly increased her chances of developing breast cancer. Or Sarah Falola, who discovered she had breast cancer shortly after losing her husband to cancer. After a double mastectomy earlier this year, she’s now gearing up to start a course of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.
Then there’s Amanda Jones who lost her youngest daughter, Rebecca, to breast cancer at the age of just 33 and has since dedicated her life to raising awareness of the disease.
The seven women are helping to spread the get moving message [Photo: M&S]
Speaking of the #letsgetmoving campaign Eluned Hughes, of Breast Cancer Now, said: “We want women to know how important it is to get active. Studies show that just 30 minutes of activity per day can help reduce your risk of getting breast cancer by at least 20%. This can be something as simple as walking to work, gardening or taking the family out for a bike ride. Any activity that makes you warmer, breathe harder and makes your heart beat faster counts.”
To support the Breast Cancer Awareness Month campaign visit http://www.marksandspencer.com/s/lingerie/breast-cancer-now
Have you been affected by breast cancer? Let us know @YahooStyleUK
