Forest Green Rovers turn pink
Forest Green Rovers will be turning a shade of pink for local medical charity Cobalt as they take on Cheltenham Town Football Club this week. Players will be warming up in pink shirts at the match on Saturday 20 October.
This is all in aid of a new fundraising campaign to update mammography equipment for the Thirlestaine Breast Centre in Gloucestershire. It will be the only equipment of its kind in the whole of the county.
GCHQ (the Government Communications Headquarters) will be turning their social media pink and many more local businesses across Gloucestershire will be showing off pink window displays and pink lighting in the evening.
The new equipment will provide clearer 3D pictures, more like a hologram, of the whole of the breast. The curved compression surface of the new equipment mirrors the shape of the breast making the experience of the examination more comfortable and can enable a more accurate diagnosis of breast cancer at an earlier stage.
£123,000 needs to be raised to achieve the target. The equipment will be gifted to the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for use by NHS patients and the Charity hope to have the equipment in place by February 2019.
The Thirlestaine Breast Centre at Cobalt House serves a population of 115,000 women across the county of screening age. 28,000 screening mammograms are taken at the Centre each year.
The Breast Screening Programme in Gloucestershire, is delivered by the NHS under the direction of Consultant Radiologist and Cobalt Medical Director, Professor Iain Lyburn. The team at the Centre aim to reduce mortality from breast cancer by finding signs of the disease at an early stage.
Professor Lyburn said: “This equipment will make a significant difference to the care of thousands of local women every year during their assessment and investigation of potential breast cancer.”
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, accounting for 15% of all new cancer cases. 1 in 8 women and 1 in 870 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime.
Julia Jenkins, Head of Fundraising, Cobalt said: “Cobalt has supported breast cancer services since the screening programme was launched in 1990, almost thirty years ago.
Cobalt want to provide patients with the best possible chance of early diagnosis and using technology like this will enable more effective treatment and ultimately save lives.”
If you would like to get involved, donate or get further information contact the fundraising team on 01242 535922 or go to https://www.cobalthealth.co.uk/support-us/gloucestershire-breast-cancer-equipment-appeal