Pink Ribbon Breakfast 2023: Coast FM host encourages Waikato to host breast cancer brekkie

Coast's Lorna Riley is encouraging Waikato locals to host a Pink Ribbon Breakfast next month.

May is just around the corner and with it the annual Pink Ribbon Breakfast fundraiser. Auckland-based Coast FM host and Breast Cancer Foundation NZ (BCFNZ) ambassador Lorna Riley is asking Waikato locals to get behind the national initiative.

The cause is close to Lorna’s heart - she went through breast cancer herself for a second time last year and she says a Pink Ribbon Breakfast is the chance to support the work of the BCFNZ.

“Through my shock diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and beyond, BCFNZ has been there alongside me with support, advice and wonderful resources ... Hosting a Pink Ribbon Breakfast is a chance to help BCFNZ help so many of the women we love,” Lorna says.

Around 300 women in the Waikato region are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, making it the most common cancer for New Zealand women.

The BCFNZ doesn’t receive any government funding, so they need the support of everyday Kiwis. The Pink Ribbon Breakfast is the foundation’s biggest annual fundraising campaign where people are invited to host a breakfast and their guests make a donation to the BCFNZ in exchange.

Last year, 67,000 New Zealanders got together with their friends, whānau and workmates for this cause to raise vital funds.

The Pink Ribbon Breakfast supports the work of the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand.

BCFNZ chief executive Ah-Leen Rayner says every Pink Ribbon Breakfast makes a difference.

“With one in nine Kiwi women diagnosed with breast cancer, we all have someone in our lives who has been affected. By hosting a Pink Ribbon Breakfast, you’ll be helping us to achieve our ambitious vision of zero deaths from breast cancer – so that we don’t lose any more of our women to this disease,” Rayner says.

Lorna says the Pink Ribbon breakfast was also a great time to remind women to check their breasts and when they last had a mammogram.

“Early detection is everything when it comes to this insidious disease, as I well know. So get to know your normal, book that mammogram if it’s overdue, and get your friends and whānau to do the same.”

To find out how to host a brekkie in pink or how to get behind the cause, visit the BCFNZ website.