Wearing pink for a fantastic cause

Once again, I have joined fellow MSPs from across the parliament, getting togged up in bright pink berets, boas and bangles and all manner of other daft things to give our support to Wear It Pink – the annual event to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research.

Wear It Pink is now in its 15th year and we are once again calling on supporters across the country to add a flash of pink to their wardrobe for the day and raise money for Breast Cancer Now’s life-saving breast cancer research.

The date for Wear It Pink day this year is Friday, October 21, so there is plenty of time to dig out your pinkest, funkiest outfit and get involved and help support Breast Cancer Now’s efforts to ensure that, by 2050, everyone who develops breast cancer lives – an ambition shared by the Scottish Government and all party leaders in Scotland.

Wear It Pink raises close to £2million each year for world-class research into breast cancer, and this year the aim is to be pinker and more fun than ever before. Anyone can take part, whether at work, at home or at school.

All you have to do is wear something pink and donate what you can.

Around 4600 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in Scotland. Almost 1000 people die from the disease.

All of us will have someone within our circle of family and friends who has been affected. We must act now to stop this devastating disease in its tracks.

Breast Cancer Now’s cutting edge research is making a huge difference. But we all need to join forces and act now, to do our bit to stop women dying from breast cancer by 2050.

I’m fully behind the charity’s ambition and I support wear it pink every year.

You too can sign up to wear it pink on Friday, October 21, to support Breast Cancer Now’s life- saving research.

For more information or to register, visit www. wearitpink.org.

In March 2016, every mainstream political party got behind Breast Cancer Now’s 2050 Challenge campaign and the Scottish Government and parliament are committed to helping stop deaths from breast cancer by 2050.

The 2050 commitment is contained in the Scottish Government’s Cancer Strategy.

Its ambition is:“To stop anyone dying from breast cancer by 2050, a shared ambition with Breast Cancer Now.”

That is an ambitious target but beating breast cancer is an important goal and it only by being ambitious that we will get there.