Pink Week shows the best of breast cancer activism

 

Dina Rabinovitch, a newspaper columnist and mother, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 at the age of 40. From then until her death in 2007, she wrote about juggling her treatment with her career and family commitments. Her memoir, Take Off Your Party Dress: When Life’s Too Busy for Breast Cancer, raised £110,754 for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Northwood, Middlesex, where she received her treatment.


Dina’s daughter, Nina Rauch, was 10 when her mother received the diagnosis. In her sixth-form years at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, Nina ran her first Pink Week, in memory of her mother, holding a series of events to raise money and awareness. When she went up to Clare College, Cambridge, Nina took Pink Week with her and it has become a very successful annual event, since emulated by Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Sussex, King’s London and the Cass Business School.




Pink Week at Cambridge raised £35,000 last year. The money is divided equally between Breast Cancer Now, Breast Cancer Care, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, Breast Cancer Haven, Victoria’s Promise, and – very appropriately for the young – Coppafeel and Teens Unite.

This year's Pink Week, which is run entirely by students, begins on Saturday February 2 with the Pink Ball held at Swynford Manor in Newmarket. The week is not all pink froth; the students do not shun the severity of the disease. They explore attitudes to breast cancer as well as its intersection with mental health. All this comes alongside evenings of pink gin, cocktails, pizza and prosecco. And then there's a vegan supper club, interval training and candlelit yoga, in case anyone had forgotten how important it is to take the lifestyle recommendations of the breast cancer charities.

This year, Pink Week in Cambridge will welcome a new event. Miranda Nicholson, an art history student at Murray Edwards College, came up with the idea of illustrating the breast cancer journey with an exhibition of art, sculpture and audio. Miranda and her team of four undergraduates contacted Adriana Ford, founder of the Breast Cancer Art Project, for help in identifying artists from across the world, all of whom have used their art as therapy during their breast cancer experience. The exhibition, which will also include pieces from the college’s collection, will be hosted by the New Hall Art Collection. It opens on Feb 3 with a speech from Ford.

Adriana launched the Breast Cancer Art Project in 2017 after undergoing reconstructive surgery following breast cancer. Of the Pink Week exhibition, Adriana said “I feel privileged to be in a position to help share the stories of our breast cancer sisters, through their art, at this famous university, hopefully touching upon the hearts and minds of some of the students and staff there, along with members of the local community.”

Whatever the type of creativity used, many people who develop cancer find an outlet for their anger, frustration and fear through one of the arts. Through their work they inform, reassure and raise the issues facing people whose lives have been turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis but who try to continue as before for the sake of family and friends. Nina remembers her mother saying to the children: ”This is cancer, but not the kind you find in films or Jacqueline Wilson novels; this kind of cancer you live with.”

The popularity of Pink Week at Cambridge is reflected year round by the 4.7 million followers of its Facebook page. Clearly, the young are beginning to recognise that breast cancer is not necessarily a disease which will never happen to them. It will have touched many an undergraduate’s family.



In her final weeks, Dina wrote: “The campaigning, hustling, fundraising pink of the breast cancer charities brings in its wake the usual complaints that breast cancer hogs the charity limelight. Only I don’t agree. I don’t think we are aware enough yet.” She is right: the figures for showing the uptake of NHS breast screening in England have reached a new decade low.

Nina Rauch’s initial idea of Pink Week was fuelled, in her words, by “Mum’s firm belief that a cure will be found.” For everyone who is living with breast cancer or is a survivor, Pink Week will be playing an important part by highlighting the experiences of others, new campaigns and scientific advancements plus collaborating with Breast Cancer Now’s belief that by 2050 everyone with breast cancer will live – and live well.

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