Heart-felt Gifts Help Women with Breast Cancer

Heart-felt Gifts Help Women with Breast Cancer

Media Release

December 10, 2007

Breast cancer support campaign Skip for Life is hoping women will wear their hearts round their necks to support women in need this Christmas.

The organisation has just launched a stunning range of heart shaped glass pendants on sterling silver chains, to help raise funds for women with breast cancer who can’t afford the treatment they so desperately need.

Available for purchase exclusively on the Skip for Life website (www.skipforlife.org.nz), the necklaces make great gifts as not only do they look fabulous, but a generous donation from each glass pendant sold will be used to help women struggling to afford breast cancer treatment.

Gift-givers can choose from a large glass heart hung on a 36.9gm, 50cm sterling silver Belcher chain for $179.90, or a smaller glass heart hung on a 20gm, 42cm sterling silver twist-rope chain at $99.90. The smaller glass heart’s have proved to be incredibly popular, and have temporarily sold out, but will be available again from January 2008 – just in time for Valentine’s Day. A $12.50 packaging and postage fee applies.

Skip for Life will pass on 50% of the purchase price of the necklaces to women needing help to pay for high-cost Herceptin treatment.

Founder of Skip for Life, Auckland mother and businesswoman, Jacqueline Harrison, says that the registered charity aims to make a difference in the lives of women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer, who are struggling to afford Herceptin treatment at around $6000 a time.

District health boards recently began to fund Herceptin for early-stage cancers, but only for a short course of treatment. One year is the norm in other developed countries and is also the recommendation of many New Zealand oncologists.

Jacqueline Harrison says there are many women throughout New Zealand who have embarked on a longer course at a huge cost to themselves and their families, and others who have been recommended for the extended treatment but who were prevented from accessing it because they didn’t have the money.

Skip for Life launched earlier this year with mass “skip-ins” raising $6000 for women in need. The organisation has raised a further $7000 with its glamorous Liz Mitchell-designed T-shirts and sporty Skip for Life tops.

Since the charities inception, two women from the Nelson region have each received $3000 towards their treatments, and other women are in line for a similar amount in the New Year, says Ms Harrison.

To make a donation or to buy a Skip for Life necklace or t-shirt, visit the Skip for Life website, www.skipforlife.org.nz

ENDS