Readers: wear it pink to support

As we near Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, I’m calling on your readers to wear it pink, on 22 October.

By taking part in the UK’s biggest and brightest fundraiser, readers can raise vital funds and help make life-changing breast cancer research and care happen at a time when it’s never been more needed.

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted how Breast Cancer Now has been able to support people affected by breast cancer – we had to postpone in-person meetings and repivot our support online, and our research was stalled when our labs were closed during the first lockdown.

However, breast cancer remains the most common cancer in women in the UK, with one in seven women developing this devastating disease in their lifetime.

Disruption to breast cancer across treatments and care over the past 18 months have made the already frightening time of a breast cancer diagnosis even tougher for those faced with this difficult news, and the support we provide and hope our research generates has never been more essential.

We remain determined to be there the whole way through to support people when they need us and to make the research breakthroughs that continue to drive forward progress.

You can play your part in helping us to do this by joining people across the UK to wear it pink on 22 October, to raise funds for Breast Cancer Now.

If there ever was a time to put on that pink top, proudly drape that pink feather boa around your neck or pull up those pink socks, it’s now.

Together (for the 20th year running) we can wear pink, raise money and help make life-changing breast cancer research and care happen.

Join us and sign up today at wearitpink.org.

Baroness Delyth Morgan

Chief Executive, Breast Cancer Now

Value to getting out in fresh air

Walking in the fresh air is something that many of us have appreciated more than ever since the pandemic began.

As someone who tries to walk every day, I value the physical and wellbeing benefits that it brings – as well as the time to think and reflect.

I am writing to encourage your readers to put their best foot forward and take part in Sue Ryder’s Walk to Remember 2021.

Healthcare charity Sue Ryder is a cause that is close to my heart.

My daughter was cared for in her final days at one of Sue Ryder’s hospices, Sue Ryder Leckhampton Court Hospice, in 2010. The compassionate care she received meant an awful lot to me and my family.

Sue Ryder does fantastic work, being there for families like mine. However, it remains reliant on voluntary income and needs your readers’ support to ensure it can keep offering expert care.

This is why I want to tell you about how you can get involved with Walk to Remember this October.

It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends to celebrate the memory of your loved one, raise vital funds and help Sue Ryder fill someone’s last days with love.

Sue Ryder’s research shows more than half (54%) of the British public think that remembrance events help them grieve. You can join hundreds of other supporters and walk 5k or 10k at one of Sue Ryder’s organised events – Walk to Remember in Bedford or Peterborough, or Starlight Hike in Cheltenham or Worth Valley.

You can also organise your own Walk to Remember and do 5k or 10k or a distance of your choice on any day during October. The charity’s research found more than two thirds of people (71%) have a special place they visit to remember someone who has died.

Make it your Walk to Remember by deciding your start and finish line and a route that means something to you.

The funds raised will help Sue Ryder to support people through the most difficult times of their lives.

Whether that’s a terminal illness or a bereavement, with your support Sue Ryder can be there when it matters.

You can sign up now at sueryder.org/walk Thank you so much for your support; it really will make a difference to those needing Sue Ryder’s care.

Sir Geoff Hurst MBE

Former England footballer, World Cup winner and Sue Ryder Ambassador

Farming problems with hare coursing

For many farmers, this is an all too familiar scene at this time of year: They have combined one of their fields, and carted the grain. They go to close the field gate and, as they do so, a group of individuals driving a 4x4 attempt to force access to go hare coursing. When challenged, the group physically assault the farmer, leaving him or her shaken and needing medical treatment.

The common perception of the poacher is the shifty, Claude Greengrass-type character portrayed in Heartbeat and Emmerdale. The brutal reality faced by many CLA members is unfortunately more like the scene described above, rather than the loveable rogue taking one for the pot.

Hare coursing is about as far removed from this populist image as you can possibly get. Large sums of money are bet on the outcome of matches, thousands of pounds of damage are caused to crops, violence against those who inadvertently get in the way is rife – and there are clear links between coursers and other organised criminal activity.

However CLA South East, which represents farmers and landowners across Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, believes hare coursing during the day is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wildlife crime.

Night poaching can be particularly distressing to CLA members.

Tim Bamford, CLA South

East Regional Director