St Luke’s storage company comes to the aid of charity

Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC)

Media Release

18 August 2014

St Luke’s storage company comes to the aid of breast cancer charity

Storage King St Luke’s is shouldering a burden for a national breast cancer charity by providing free storage for thousands of support packs for women newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) has just reviewed, rewritten and reprinted the Step by Step support and information pack it offers free of charge to the 3,000 New Zealanders diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

The charity was faced with the challenge of storing more than 5,000 Step by Step packs, when Storage King St Luke’s came to the rescue.

BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, says Storage King’s offer to store the thousands of books for free is enormously generous.

“Our Step by Step packs help to demystify breast cancer and provide support and information for women who may be stressed and overwhelmed with a new diagnosis.

“We’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Storage King St Lukes on behalf of all these women for supporting New Zealanders with breast cancer,” Ms Burgess says.

She says the free storage gives BCAC the freedom to use fundraising dollars to directly help women with breast cancer.

Storage King spokesperson, Lorraine Jones, says they’re thrilled to be involved with BCAC.

“Supporting local families in our local communities is a fundamental belief of our business. Storage King is a brand that loves to reach out to customers through this kind of community involvement and we are very proud to be supporting BCAC. If our support, in some small way, provides better support for women in our society then it is all the more worthwhile.”

BCAC’s Step by Step support packs contain an information book which provides details about breast cancer treatment and care; a diary for women to record medical information; and a journal for women to note down their thoughts and feelings.

The new edition also features extra sections on how to cope with the emotional fall out of a breast cancer diagnosis; fertility issues for younger women; sexuality and intimacy after treatment; men with breast cancer; and looking after yourself after treatment.

If you or someone you know has breast cancer and would like to receive one of BCAC’s Step by Step support and information packs, please visitwww.breastcancer.org.nz/step-by-step

ENDS

About the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC)

www.breastcancer.org.nz

The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) is a charity run by breast cancer survivors. The organisation is committed to making world-class detection, treatment and care accessible to all those affected by breast cancer in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

BCAC currently has more than 30 breast cancer-related member organisations and its key aims are:

• to support and empower those diagnosed with breast cancer, and their family, whanau and friends, by providing information and resources that allow women to make well-informed choices about their treatment and care

• to provide a voice for New Zealand women diagnosed with breast cancer

• to inform and advocate for timely access to world class breast cancer care, including treatments (surgery, medicines, radiotherapy, management of side-effects, self -care) and psychosocial care throughout New Zealand

• to consult and engage with Māori and Pasifika women to identify and promote breast cancer issues that could improve outcomes in these communities

About breast cancer in New Zealand*

Around 3,000 New Zealand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every year. That's eight women diagnosed every day.

370 women under the age of 45 will be diagnosed with breast cancer every year.

A quarter of all breast cancer cases in New Zealand are in women aged 70 or over

Each year, 650 women will die from breast cancer in New Zealand, two every day.

Around 20 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer each year in New Zealand.

(All figures taken from the Ministry of Health’s Cancer: New Registrations and Deaths 2010 and

Cancer: Selected Site 2010, 2011, 2012)

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