Breast cancer initiative
Over 500 bikers took part in the Pink October Atlas Motorcycle Ride yesterday, which included a Bike Expo.
A variety of bikes from different time periods including cruiser bikes, vintage bikes and much more were exhibited.
Pink October is the annual month-long international breast cancer initiative.
The ride was from Ghajn Tuffieha to the Ta’ Xbiex gardens. Riders paid a €10 registration fee, meaning around €5,000 was collected. Donations, however, have not yet been counted. One of the organisers said that some people would chuck in €100 donations and quite a few were collected.
The organisers were JPA, and their partners are the Marigold Foundation, Action for Breast Cancer and Europa Donna Malta.
The objectives of the campaign is to raise awareness of the importance of living a healthy life, a call to action for persons to screen themselves as the earlier cancer is caught, the more likely it could be cured. The money collected will go towards the purchase of machinery for the Oncology Centre.
Malta registered the second highest incidence rate for breast cancer in 2011, according to Eurostat figures. Since then, the absolute number of newly registered cases of breast cancer per year have gone down marginally, from 349 in 2011 to 209 in 2013, the most recent data from the national directorate for health information shows.
The Pink October 2016 campaign aims to raise €90,000 from corporate sponsors, private donations and from various activities which will be held throughout October. The funds will be used to purchase a Faxitron Biovision machine to further enhance diagnostic precision and effectiveness during breast and other cancer related surgery.
Over the last three years, Pink October has raised €150,000 in funds and is now recognized as Malta’s largest fund raising and awareness event on breast cancer.