A community breast cancer support group has received a welcome cash boost from an international healthcare company.
Cambio Healthcare Systems donated £1,000 to The Pink Place, based in Taylor’s Hair and Beauty Salon on Wote Street.
The group’s founders, Janis Taylor and Julia Dingwall, said the cash will help them open a dedicated premises in the future.
The Pink Place, launched in September last year, offers counselling and free beauty treatments for people coping with breast cancer.
Ms Taylor, from Oakley, said: “The donation is huge, it is really helpful. It goes towards our goal of getting new premises. Eventually, we want to offer our services to everybody with cancer.
Ms Taylor said up to 250 women in Basingstoke and Deane are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and services like The Pink Place go along way helping them cope.
Joe Brindle of South View, was diagnosed with the disease in August this year and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Her husband, Andrew, is head of operations at Cambio’s UK office in Reading.
“When I first heard about heard about The Pink Place, I did not think I would be the kind of person who would want to talk to people about my problems,” she said . “But it is nice to come and see people here – it is a little brightness on the horizon when you are feeling down. It has made a massive difference to me.”
Cambio’s head of organisational development, Jill Gibson, from Oakley, helped raise the cash after organising a Christmas party raffle on December 2.
The 16 employees at the UK office raised £420 and the company’s head office in Sweden rounded the figure up to £1,000.
After handing over the cheque on Monday, Ms Gibson said: “I am really pleased because it is a small community charity. For a small enterprise, it is a good amount of money, especially when their aim is to be so much more. It is well supported in the company.
“The Pink Place seemed a perfect cause to support because it’s, a small, local charity where people do good work out of the goodness of their hearts.”
