We are delighted to announce that this month, we have teamed up with the Marie Keating Foundation to support ‘Think Pink’! We will be donating €3 of the proceeds from every Pink Bouquet with Vase sold in the month of October to this worthy cause, you can also use Coupon Code MK5 to save €5 at checkout!.
The statistics show that 1 in 2 of us will get cancer at some stage in our lives, so it has never been more important to raise awareness for early detection. Read our blog to find out everything you need to know about Think Pink and how you can help.
What does the Marie Keating Foundation do?
The Marie Keating Foundation is committed to spreading cancer awareness and providing vital information that can help prevent cancer. It’s mission is to ‘make cancer less frightening by enlightening and it’s aim is to achieve a world free from the fear of cancer’. The work they do is extremely important and is helping to save lives all over Ireland.
It’s been 23 years since the Marie Keating Foundation was set up, following Marie’s death from breast cancer in 1998. After losing their mother, the Keating family promised that they would do everything they could to ensure men and women in every community in Ireland had access to the necessary information to prevent cancer or detect it at its earliest stages. The Marie Keating Foundation supports families across Ireland at every step of their cancer journey.
Through its community information service, the Foundation’s nurses have talked to over 300,000 people about the causes and risk factors of cancer. The Foundation offers national cancer awareness and education campaigns covering the most common cancers affecting people in Ireland, including bowel, Testicular, breast, cervical, lung, prostate and skin cancer.
As more and more people are being diagnosed with cancer, the Marie Keating Foundation supports cancer survivors through its Positive Living and Survive & Thrive programmes, which are run nationwide, free of charge, for men and women. Over 1,000 cancer survivors have attended courses and seminars since the programmes’ inception in 2014.
The Survive & Thrive Programme is aimed at assisting anyone who has come through treatment to adjust to their ‘new normal’ and offer practical advice and help in many areas of life including diet and exercise, emotional support and adjusting to returning to work. The Positive Living programme is for men and women living with advanced cancer and supports them in coping with their specific physical and psychological needs. The Foundation’s recently launched survivorship website www.surviveandthrive.ie has a host of information and advice for anyone living with or beyond cancer.
What is Think Pink?
The Marie Keating Foundation is currently running Think Pink and Think Blue campaigns in order to spread awareness for the prevention of Breast Cancer and Prostate cancer. Think Pink aims to “spread awareness about how women can reduce their risk of developing breast cancer and become more breast aware, as over 3,215 women in Ireland are diagnosed with the disease each year.”
What is a Pink Patron?
The Pink Patrons are businesses who have decided to ‘go pink’ for the month of October by raising vital funds through various means such as asking their customers if they would like to donate a euro at the till, special offers on their products and holding Think Pink fundraiser events themselves. Brands such as Sketchers, Marks & Spencers, Harvey Norman, Mad Flowers and many more are all taking part! Find out what offers they have for Think Pink here.
What will the money raised be used for?
The funds raised from the Pink Patron campaigns will go towards helping the Marie Keating Foundation to spread awareness with a focus on prevention and early detection. They do this through things like their mobile information units, which visit schools, workplaces, towns and community centres around Ireland and by hosting seminars about Breast Cancer. Funds will also go towards the Positive Living programme, which provides vital “support for the specific emotional and practical needs of people with metastatic cancer.”
MKF’s specialised nursing teams also help hundred of people across Ireland each year live a healthy lifestyle, reduce their risk of cancer as well as spot the signs and symptoms of cancer early so they can seek advice early. With their Mobile Information Units and Caddy Vans, the Foundation travels around each province sharing cancer prevention information in harder to reach or disadvantaged area’s, ensuring people everywhere have the information they need to stay healthy.
As a part of their School Cancer Awareness Programme, the Marie Keating Foundation also provide cancer prevention and awareness tips and information through tailored training sessions and webinars to bring the importance of early detection and prevention to students and teachers in their places of study/homes.
How can I help?
If you’d like to help raise funds for Think Pink, you can do so through supporting the Pink Patrons offers or you can host your own Think Pink day by registering here. You can also help by becoming more aware about the risks of breast cancer and becoming more informed on breast cancer prevention here. We would love to see our fans support Think Pink this month by buying our Pink Bouquet with Vase! €3 from each bouquet will go towards Think Pink, furthermore you can use Coupon Code MK5 to save €5 at checkout!
