Shufflebottom and Tenovus – Breast Cancer Awareness Day 2023
At Shufflebottom we always try to do our best to raise awareness of challenging health conditions that are close to home and close to the hearts of our team of staff. We also aim to support Charities that work so hard to this end too.
That’s why on Wednesday, 18th October our whole team here at Shufflebottom – men and women – came together to support Breast Cancer Awareness month – October 2023. With Breast Cancer being the second most common cancer in women, we know that one in eight of women will develop this type of cancer sometime in life. And men are not untouched by it either, nor the families who support and care for those with this condition.
So, in the darkening days of October it was our aim to shine a light on the issue and turn the office pink to illustrate our commitment to:
the importance of breast cancer screenings and mammograms
education about risks
supporting early diagnosis
fundraising for research
We welcomed long-standing charity Tenovus here to Cross Hands to impart its expertise to all our staff. After our morning break, three members of their team shared important information with us: Elin Wyn-Murphy explained Tenovus’ role as a fundraiser; Angela Barnett, Support Line Nurse for Tenovus and ex-Breast Cancer Nurse, gave an informative talk to those on the factory floor and then separate talks to the men (she had never addressed a roomful of men before!) and then the women in the office. Rhian Jones, also a Support Line Nurse for Tenovus, spoke about Tenovus and Cancer more generally. Everyone agreed it was an enlightening morning.
It was great to see so many members of our team wearing something pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. There were games too, with Mary winning the ‘sweepstake game number 8’ and Nicky winning the ‘guess how many ribbons’ – of which there were 137! There were even pink cup-cakes!
From the early days of wearing something pink in 1985, to the distinctive pink ribbon worn from the 1990s, the pink theme is now embedded in people’s consciousness and in society at large. This is great to see. So it is a source of pride that Carmarthenshire at large is working so hard to put Breast Cancer Awareness centre stage.
One such example is Shufflebottom Director, Alex Shufflebottom’s home town of Llandeilo in the Towy Valley which has literally turned pink in October to raise awareness of Breast Cancer further: pink flags fly in the high street and bunting adorns shop fronts of the many business owners who have used wonderful shop front displays in pink to illuminate an often dark subject. Good on Llandeilo!
If Llandeilo and Shufflebottom can play their parts to further raising awareness, education, and helping fund research, then we know that the annual October focus and small-scale events such as ours can go a long way in helping to improve early diagnosis and increasingly positive outcomes in this area of Cancer.