Raise awareness and support research for Breast Cancer Awareness

Every October, people all over the world show their support for people affected by breast cancer. Breast cancer is always an important issue, but October is when charities and fundraisers can really raise awareness and funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.

What is breast cancer awareness month?

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK with one woman diagnosed every 10 minutes. Around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK. One in seven women in the UK will develop breast cancer in their lifetime and this Breast Cancer Awareness Month nearly 5,000 people will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Although these figures are high, almost nine in ten (85%) of women survive breast cancer for five years or more and breast cancer survival has doubled in the past 40 years in the UK. From a medical advancements perspective, this is due to a combination of improvements in treatment and care, earlier detection through mammogram screening and a focus on faster diagnosis, but added to this is the increase in profile of what breast cancer is and how to check yourself to ensure people are catching it early - all aided by breast cancer awareness month.

An estimated 600,000 people are alive in the UK after a diagnosis of breast cancer and it is predicted to rise to 1.2 million in 2030.

What happens during Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Charities and organisations focus their efforts on raising awareness of the causes of breast cancer and what we can do to prevent it, they share survival stories and often run campaigns to encourage women to attend their breast cancer screening appointments and highlight advancements that have been achieved through clinical research

How can I get involved in supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Wearing a pink ribbon or a pink outfit is a really simple and easy way to express moral support for those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. If you want to do a little bit extra here are a few more ideas or campaigns that you can get involved in:

Make a Donation

As the saying goes, every little helps, even if you can only give some small change it all adds up. Research different breast cancer charities and organisations to find out where your money will be spent … perhaps you want to donate to researching breast cancer? You might want to support those who are undergoing treatment? Or it might be a campaign that encourages women and men to check themselves for symptoms? Decide how you would most like your money to support the cause and choose where you donate your money based on those elements.

Join in with an organised event

Fundraising activities and events are amplified during Breast Cancer Awareness Month so there will already be a lot of charities and organisations organising events that you can sign up to and your fee is your donation. Breast Cancer UK is running a 25-Day Daily Online Pilates Movement Challenge that only costs you £5 to enter and you can build a new healthy habit that will help reduce your risk of breast cancer and improve your well-being. You could even ask family and friends to sponsor you as any additional funds you raise or donate will be used directly to support their work to prevent breast cancer.

If Pilates isn’t really your thing, you could sign up to Breast Cancer Now’s Wear It Pink campaign that has happened every year for over 20 years and raised over £37.5 million. They are the ‘trusted friend that you turn to for caring support when you need it most. The expert authority on breast cancer research who is making breakthroughs and driving forward progress’. On 21 October 2022 people everywhere will be wearing something pink and maybe even hosting a quiz or a bake sale to raise additional funds.

Volunteer

If you can’t afford to donate money, then how about donating your time instead? All the charity events require people to help run them after all, or perhaps you have a skill or a talent that might help one of the charities save some money … there are endless ways to donate your time. If you’re retired, in education, between jobs or willing to give up an hour or two of precious spare time to volunteer for charity, there are endless amounts of people who would love to hear from you. Cancer Research UK has a list of all the different types of volunteers they need and how much time they ask you to commit for each one, find an opportunity to suit you!

Need to collect money to donate to charity?

Gone are the days of people carrying cash – Covid-19 has well and truly seen them off. The pandemic has also meant that many workplaces are hybrid combinations of people working in the office and from home, meaning that very rarely, if at all, are people in the office all at the same time.

This means that smaller scale charity events that you may run in work, like a bake sale or a treadmill challenge, tend to get much less in the way of donations than previously. Why? Are people less caring? No! It’s just become even harder for them to donate. With the best will in the world, if you don’t have cash on you, you don’t have cash on you! Yes, you could nip out to the cash machine but in the hustle and bustle of work life, this is unlikely. You could send your bank details around the office…..but not only does that make you feel a little uncomfortable, it also means that as well as the event itself, you also then need to spend your time examining your bank statement, having to trawl through your bill payments and Starbucks' splurges to work out who's chipped in what.

GivingSo you can set up a Just Gving page, but to pay into one takes over 10 screens and you’ll need to create a homepage when really all you want is for someone to say ‘ooooh that banana bread looks delicious’ and for you to get £2.50 towards Breast Cancer awareness.

Is that too much to ask? Well, happily it’s not any more….

How can I easily arrange a charity collection?

So how about this – an app that makes it easy to collect money from people whilst also making it easy for people to pay in.

Simply download the app for free here, create a ‘pot’ for the event you are running and this will generate you a payment link and a QR code.

Share the payment link anywhere – email, Slack, WhatsApp – however you would normally communicate with your people, and with just a tap people can donate to your pot. They do not need to download the app, create an account or validate an email – they simply tap to pay, and it’s done. If they have Apple or Google Pay, it takes less than 5 seconds.

Why not print out the QR code and tape it to your cake sale table, your treadmill, exercise bike, trampoline, your own back (or front!), or your swimming hat?! People just scan it with their phone and voilà, they’ve donated!

There are no mandatory fees involved – people can choose to make a donation to Collctiv when paying in, and you can make a voluntary contribution when you withdraw, but there is no obligation to do so. 100% of the money you raise goes to your chosen charity.

Organisers bring people together

Since 2019, Collctiv has helped over 350,000 people from 88 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's gifts for colleagues, group holidays, charity fundraisers or grassroots sports teams – download our free app today and start bringing people together!