The Work Of Breast Cancer Ireland

For October, Her Campus DCU has chosen Breast Cancer Ireland as our featured charity of the month. Breast Cancer Ireland is a charity that aims to raise funds to support research programmes nationally and to educate and raise awareness about breast health. The charity’s vision is to transform breast cancer from often being a fatal disease into a treatable long term illness. 

One in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. 30% of women diagnosed are between the ages of 20 and 50. In Ireland, 3,351 new cases of breast cancer in women and 30 cases in men are diagnosed annually. Through research funded by donations, survival rates have increased to 85% and there has been a 2% reduction annually in mortality rates. 

This year Breast Cancer Ireland are celebrating their 10th anniversary of the Great Pink Run with Glanbia. This year it is a virtual event due to covid 19. The event is sponsored by Fitbit and is happening on the 17th and 18th of October. In 2019 the events in Dublin, Kilkenny, and Chicago raised 600,000 euros for breast cancer Ireland. 

People are encouraged to take on the challenge of the Great Pink Run, to walk, jog or run 5k,10k, or 15k. You can register online for 15 euro and participants will then receive their run pack in the post. The charity is urging participants to take a selfie in their pink t-shirt and post it to social media using the hashtag ‘#GreatPinkRun’ to turn the globe pink and raise awareness. People will then go online and log their kilometres on the webpage. 

Breast cancer Ireland aims to educate and raise awareness about the disease. They have partnered with the Irish National Teachers’ organisation and corn market financial services to launch a new breast awareness programme, ‘Breast Health is your Wealth’. The coordinators of the programme, who are all breast cancer survivors, will travel around Ireland to talk to teachers and students in secondary schools. 

The goal of the programme is to start a discussion about breast health and to encourage self breast checks. The breast cancer Ireland team uses a mannequin to show the eight signs and symptoms of breast cancer and how to effectively check your breasts. 

The eight most common signs of breast cancer are; 

• a breast lump

• breast swelling

• a change of breast size

• nipple rash, nipple inversion

• nipple discharge

• breast pain 

• dimpling of breast skin

Early detection is the key to survival. This disease affects women of all ages. 

The charity invests much of its donations into research in primary and advanced breast cancer. Since 2012 they have been funding nurses to research precision medicine in Waterford, Cork, and Dublin. Precision medicine offers personalised care to groups of patients based on their genes and the genes present within the cancer cells. 

The CEO of Breast Cancer Ireland, Aisling Hurley, commended the clinical research teams saying that “they have made a real and sustained contribution to the advancement of personalised patient care and the landscape of the disease. Breast Cancer Ireland is keen to share these developments with our community of survivors, supporters, and donors.” 

This year, Breast Cancer Ireland and Beaumont hospital are working together to create a Breast Cancer Research Centre on the grounds of the hospital. The centre will house consultants, radiologists, and scientists under one roof to create personalised treatment plans for patients diagnosed. Groundworks began in June and they aim to open their doors in April 2021.

There are many ways to get involved and help Breast Cancer Ireland achieve their goals and continue their fantastic work in clinical trials and education. You can text ‘CURE’ to 50300 to donate 4 euro, you can sign up online on their website to give monthly donations of your choice and you can fundraise for the charity. 

This year the charity has also released pink face barrier masks, you can purchase a pack of three masks for 13 euro including postage and packaging fee on their website at breastcancerireland.com