Supermarket giant Asda has raised £40m for two of the UK’s breast cancer charities, Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Campaign, it has announced today.
Asda has announced the landmark figure following 17 years of fundraising as part of its Tickled Pink campaign, which has been raising awareness and funds for breast cancer across the UK through the sale of pink products and colleague fundraising efforts.
Paul Kelly, corporate affairs director at Asda, said: “The past 17 years of Asda’s Tickled Pink campaign have been remarkable. We have raised funds to help fight breast cancer through a unique partnership with two of the UK’s leading breast cancer charities and have raised £40 million with the support of our inspirational colleagues and customers.
“We see Tickled Pink as our chance to do something that really makes a difference to all those people affected by breast cancer in the UK – helping fund vital research, support services and one day hopefully a cure.”
When the Tickled Pink campaign was founded in 1996 the project just involved Breast Cancer Care. However feedback from Asda colleagues showed a desire to raise money to fund research into preventing and finding cures for breast cancer, as well as those already facing the disease.
As a result, Breast Cancer Campaign became the second charity partner in 2005 and any funds are now split equally between the two charities.
Samia al Qadhi, chief executive at Breast Cancer Care, said: “I am so proud of everything we have achieved together through the Tickled Pink collaboration, and so humbled by the support and dedication of Asda’s customers, suppliers and colleagues – without their efforts we simply couldn’t offer a lifeline to many thousands of people affected by breast cancer.”
Asda is a founding partner of the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank, the UK’s first nationwide store of breast cancer tissue samples which is used for research.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Campaign, said “In the last twenty years, the campaign to overcome breast cancer has gone from strength to strength, and more women are outliving the disease than ever before. But, it's still the most common form of cancer.
“We’d like to thank Asda, their very generous colleagues, customers and suppliers for their exceptional support. Without Tickled Pink a lot of this work would not have been possible.”
