Well-being: Host a Pink Ribbon Breakfast

Chelsea Winter is getting behind the Pink Ribbon Breakfast. Photo/supplied

Registrations are now open for Pink Ribbon Breakfast, with celebrity cook Chelsea Winter encouraging Bay of Plenty folk to invite their friends to breakfast in May to raise funds for the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation.

The NZ Breast Cancer Foundation hopes to top last year's total of 84 breakfasts held in the Bay of Plenty, where around 150 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Another 34 breakfasts were held in Rotorua, where 70 women are diagnosed each year.

Proceeds from this year's Pink Ribbon Breakfasts will go towards breast cancer research, with a focus on support for clinical trials, immunotherapies, preventing the spread of cancer, improving clinical practice for better patient outcomes and treatments for advanced breast cancer.

Chelsea Winter said she is honoured to be fronting the 2016 Pink Ribbon Breakfast Campaign.

"Food, friends and fundraising for a good cause, what's not to love?" she said. "It's amazing to be promoting awareness for what is such a fantastic initiative on many levels.

A great many of my fans have been involved in previous years' breakfasts using my recipes - and I'm glad I can do more to help. I encourage everyone to get involved and host a breakfast!"

Evangelia Henderson, chief executive at the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation, said the funds raised will help make up for the dire shortfall in dollars available for research in New Zealand.

"We have top-notch researchers working in the hottest areas of cancer research, such as vaccines and immunotherapy, but often there's simply not enough money to take their work forward to a stage where patients can benefit."

With more than 600 women a year still dying of breast cancer, and with the latest life-prolonging drugs seemingly beyond Pharmac's budget, New Zealand doctors and researchers have a vital role to play.

The NZBCF helps fund clinical trials that can give patients access to otherwise unaffordable treatments, studies into making better use of existing drugs, and the development of new medicines here in New Zealand.

The NZBCF also funds breast cancer patient registers, tracking patient treatment to monitor effectiveness and identify inequalities of access or care.

"Last year, supporters held 2600 Pink Ribbon Breakfasts around the country, attended by 65,000 people and raising over a million dollars," said Evangelia Henderson. "We want Kiwi women to have the best possible treatment, and research is a huge part of that. So, please, host a breakfast - your help will make a real difference."

*For information or to register to host a Pink Ribbon Breakfast, visit www.pinkribbonbreakfast.co.nz

Breast cancer in NZ
*More than 3000 women a year are diagnosed with breast cancer in NZ. That's eight women a day
*Between 90 and 95 per cent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the disease.
*About 350 NZ women under the age of 45 (when free mammograms start) will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year.
*While breast cancer has a good cure rate when found early, many women have their cancer come back - only 73 per cent will be disease-free 10 years after diagnosis.
*More than 600 women will die of breast cancer this year.
*The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation recommends women consider having yearly mammograms at age 40-49, then screen every two years from age 50.