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Calling all keen cyclists and their friends – the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition has been added to the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge 2024! On 30 November 2024, there’ll be events to suit everyone from hard-core cyclists to family groups – on road bikes, mountain bikes and e-bikes. For added motivation, and to help kiwi women with breast cancer, anyone who enters can easily set up a fundraiser for BCAC, so that all their supporters and friends can sponsor them to ride. Click this link to find out how. 

Every dollar raised will go towards getting a free Step by Step support pack out to everyone at the time of their diagnosis, and to support BCAC’s ongoing efforts to get essential breast cancer medicines to everyone who needs them. BCAC is 100% volunteer-run, so every dollar goes to helping kiwis with breast cancer. Click here to learn more about BCAC and what we do.

If you’ve had breast surgery in NZ, this 5 minute online survey investigating patient and clinician perspectives on lymphoedema is for you. Tauranga Breast Surgeon Nicola Davis is conducting the survey as part of her Masters in Advanced Surgery (Breast Surgery) research at Sydney University. 

If you’ve had breast surgery, please take 5 minutes to share your perspectives. You don't need to have had lymphoedema. All answers are anonymous.
Link to survey: https://forms.office.com/r/pcg1y8TMfJ
Link to participant information sheet: PIS Patients.pdf
 

Around 400 New Zealand women under the age of 45 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Having a family may be top of mind for many of these women. While others may not have thought about planning a family yet. But for those diagnosed with breast cancer during these childbearing years, decisions about treatment need to consider fertility. Australia-based research organisation Breast Cancer Trials is running an online Q and A session on Breast Cancer and Fertility on Tuesday 20 Feb 2024 at 7-8.30 pm NZT. You can register for this event here.

BCAC will also post a recording of this event on our website when it is released by the organisers at a later date.

But there’s no need to panic. The Good Registry makes gift buying easy. They issue gift certificates which can be redeemed by donating to one of their charity partners – like BCAC! Click here to see how to complete your Christmas shopping from your desk. By donating to BCAC this Christmas, your friends and family can help us to keep supporting, informing and representing kiwi women with breast cancer.

Ibrance (palbociclib) is a medicine used to treat advanced ER positive breast cancer. Some women find that it can keep their cancer at bay for two years or more. Managing side effects and dose changes can be important issues for these women and their clinicians. At this Breast Cancer Foundation-hosted webinar, visiting US oncologist Professor Adam Brufsky will share his insights on this important medicine. You can register to attend here. 

If you can’t attend, don’t worry – we will share the video of this webinar here on the BCAC website as soon as it becomes available.

BCAC is now one of the charities that runners in the Auckland Marathon can support. If you have entered the marathon, or know someone who has, why not support women with breast cancer by doing a bit of fundraising on the side! Just go to this webpage to register, fundraise or just make a donation. Thank you!

Register here for this free webinar run by the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Frankie Robson found a lump and was diagnosed with breast cancer at 76, and will share her experiences of going through surgery/treatment, especially during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and how she is doing now three years on. Adam Stewart coming up from Waikato to be on the panel, as well as medical oncologist Edmond Ang coming down from Whangārei. Edmond has a special interest in caring for older people with cancer, particularly breast and has a wealth of knowledge in this space. Both clinicians will discuss the decisions women have to make, when, like Frankie, they are diagnosed with breast cancer in their 70s or above. They will cover what the different surgical and treatment options are, and why these might change depending on your age.

Breast Cancer Trials’ next online Q and A session will have a panel of experts discussing and taking questions on Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Click here to register and submit a question. Triple negative breast cancer accounts for approximately 15% of all breast cancers; it lacks the usual receptors found on breast cancer cells; it is more common in younger women and in those with a BRCA gene mutation; and it is often a more aggressive type of cancer.  

Wear your ‘breast’ pink or yellow finery to support breast cancer awareness. Hamilton Lake, Innes Common. Entertainment begins at 4.30pm, 3.8km walk or 5km run. Prizes for best dressed individuals, groups and pooch. Enter now at www.pinkwalk.co.nz

Join the Breast Cancer Foundation's Pink Walk in Christchurch this October and help raise funds for breast cancer education, research and patient support. Click here to learn more and register.