To mark the start of a healthy and bright new year, Club Central Menai has launched “Pink Month”, to highlight breast cancer prevention, treatment and research during the month of January.
The entertainment venue is turning pink throughout January in support of women diagnosed, and is encouraging Sutherland Shire to join its cause.
There will be several events hosted by the venue, starting today. For cricket fans keen on watching Australia battle it out with India, the Domain Pink Test will screen live in the sport bar on January 7, with all donations going towards the McGrath Foundation.
On January 8 there is a cushion stuffing activity with the Zonta Club of Botany Bay. Patrons are invited to help stuff cushions with breast cancer patients and other volunteers. The aim is to sew 200 cushions for women undergoing surgery at St George and Sutherland hospitals.
Free mammograms for women 40 and older will be available from January 21, when a mobile BreastScreen van comes to Menai for the first time, and will be stationed in the carpark until February 1.
The mobile van also be at Engadine on February 4 and from April 8-30 at Cronulla.
The club’s terrace cafe is also donating $1 for every pink cupcake sold this month, to charity Love Your Sister, and $1 from the sale of every glass of Pink Moscato, to Pink Ribbon.
“We’ve brought all of our fundraising activities and activations together into a month-long campaign to beat breast cancer,” Club Central chief executive Paul Richardson said.
“We have over 25,000 female members and around 80 female staff, as well as the women in our own lives, so the statistic that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime really hits home.
“Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in Australia and in 2018 accounted for over 13 per cent of all new cancers so it is vital that we keep looking for a cure, but also providing the much-needed support for the women and men diagnosed each year.”
Recent data reveals as many as 290 women in South Eastern Sydney could have breast cancer, but don’t know it because they haven’t had a mammogram in the past two years.
The data, released by the Cancer Institute NSW during Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2018, also showed 45,895 women aged 50 to 74 in the region are either overdue for a mammogram, or have never had one.
“Nine out of 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer have no known family history,” Robyn Schubert, director of BreastScreen South Eastern Sydney Illawarra said.
Caringbah’s Gillian Davies has also stepped up herself on an individual project to lend a helping hand by losing her locks.
She recently raised $1500 for cancer research by shaving her hair off, and dedicated her good deed in memory of her cousin Julie, uncle Mervyn and my lifelong friend Liz who died in November last year.
Mrs Davies was supported by her colleagues and residents of Cronulla Pines Aged Care Facility, where she works as a nurse.
She donated her hair to the Gymea TAFE hair and beauty salon, where students have looked after her hair for the past 15 years.
“They are a sustainable hair salon and have passed the hair on to a wigmaker,” Mrs Davies said.
