Rosetown Funeral Home host community Pink Ribbon Breakfast

From left, guest speaker from Rosetown Breast Cancer Survivors Group Rhonda Hare, Rosetown Funeral Home owner Jim Goddin and staff member Helen Carter. Photo / Caitlan Johnston

A number of people from local Te Awamutu businesses and organisations gathered at the Te Awamutu Club on Wednesday morning for Rosetown Funeral Home's second annual Pink Ribbon Breakfast.

Pink Ribbon Breakfast is a fundraising initiative of the Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand and people all around the country host breakfasts to raise money to go towards breast cancer education, life-saving research and support patients and their families.

So far, 1262 Pink Ribbon Breakfast events have been held and $142,089 has been raised.

Te Awamutu Rosetown Funeral Home's Pink Ribbon Breakfasts are a community event and this year they were supported by Te Awamutu Club and Rosetown Lions.

Around 35 people from businesses and organisations such as Waipā District Council, Rosetown Lions, Westpac Te Awamutu, the Te Awamutu Courier, Stuff, Paper Plus and also some members of the public attended the event.

From tickets, the raffle and merchandise sales the event raised $618 for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

"It's been great, it's fantastic, it's brilliant. There's a good turnout but obviously never enough, more is good," says owner of Rosetown Funeral Home Jim Goddin.

"It's not a morning to promote our funeral home; it's just a morning to help Pink Ribbon. At the end of the day it probably ends up costing us money, like for advertising, but we're not worried about that."

"We're here to just put it on for the community."

Rosetown Funeral Home's Pink Ribbon Breakfast was supported by Te Awamutu Club who did the catering for the event. Photo / Caitlan Johnston

Attendees enjoyed a hot breakfast served by Te Awamutu Club and then heard from a guest speaker.

Rhonda Hare, member of the Rosetown Breast Cancer Survivors Group, spoke to everyone about the group and how they support people in the community.

"It's a group of ladies here in Te Awamutu who support ladies in the community and their families such as when they're newly diagnosed, if they need help around the house or if they just want to go for a coffee," says Rhonda.

"Anything they need to make their journey a little easier going."

Last week, Rosetown Funeral Home's sister business, Grinter's Funeral Home, hosted a Pink Ribbon Breakfast in Cambridge at Absolute Coffee House.

Jim says over 50 people attended and they raised about $600 after expenses were covered.

He hopes that next year's Pink Ribbon Breakfast in Te Awamutu will draw a larger crowd to support the cause.

"Get behind it, support it," says Jim.

"Breast cancer is so prevalent among women nowadays, just to come together and support them would be wonderful. It'll be bigger and better next year," added Rosetown Lions project manager Jenny Elers.