Abingdon-based national charity, ‘Against Breast Cancer’ was founded thirty years ago by Dr Anthony Leathem, a pathologist at Middlesex Hospital, and his wife Patricia, a breast cancer theatre nurse at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital.
Dr Leatham was so concerned by the numbers of young women dying of breast cancer – on many of whom he was conducting post-mortems – he started conducting research into breast cancer survival. At the time, he had no research funding only his salary, so together, Anthony and Patricia started to launch a fund-raising initiative to enable them to raise valuable research funds.
Today, the charity they established funds pioneering research into new breast cancer treatments, tools for earlier diagnosis and advice to reduce the risk of recurrence and secondary spread. Working with expert scientists, it is the charity’s ambition to ultimately discover a vaccine against breast cancer. However, as the charity receives no government funding but relies entirely on the generosity and support of people in the community, ‘Against Breast Cancer’ would love you to get involved in some way to help raise money for them.
Annually, around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer, so this disease touches so many people. Fund-raising initiatives launched by the charity are, however, so easy to support. By taking part in the various recycling schemes the charity is involved with, you can
turn everything from old bras, old clothes, empty printer cartridges and used stamps into essential funding to support their life-saving research.
The bra recycling scheme has a network of bra banks around the country. To find your nearest bra bank, or to set up one of your own in a local area, visit againstbreastcancer. org.uk/recycling/bra-recycling. When you recycle your bras, not only do you help raise funds for breast cancer research, but the same bras help support small businesses in developing countries in Africa and around the world, where bras are expensive to produce locally.
For every tonne of bras collected in the UK, ‘Against Breast Cancer’ receives £700 to fund their research. You may not realise it but used original ink and toner cartridges can also help raise money for this charity. By recycling your old printer cartridges through the charity’s partner, Ink and Toner Recycling Ltd, not only will you be protecting the environment, but you can raise money too! Simply post your old inkjet printer cartridges to Inkjet Cartridge Recycling Scheme, Against Breast Cancer, Leatham House, 13 Napier Court, Barton Lane, Abingdon, OX14 3YT. (Please note, this is not a Freepost service).
If you run a company with multiple toner cartridges, you can apply for a free collection box which when it is full, will be collected and replaced free of charge. Should you have any old and used stamps, these are also a valuable fund-raising item. Whether your stamps are new or old, British or overseas, stamps are sold by weight. For every kilogram of stamps collected, around £20 can be raised. So, this scheme is something that friends, family, companies and community groups can take an active part in collecting. Please leave a 1cm border of envelope around each stamp when you are cutting them off the envelope. Collected stamps should be sent to their address at 13 Napier Court.
Finally, the next time you receive one of the charity’s doorstep clothes collection bags, please take time to have a sort out and fill it with ladies, gents or children’s clothes, paired shoes, handbags, CD’s, DVD’s, phones or even toys. Unfortunately, they cannot take bric-a-brac, books, or duvets. The bags will be collected, usually 2-3 days after delivery, from your doorstep.
To find out more about how you can fundraise or volunteer for ‘Against Breast Cancer’ visit againstbreastcancer.org.uk.
