TH March are ‘turning it purple’ for pancreatic cancer awareness month

Staff at chartered insurance brokers TH March have joined Pancreatic Cancer Action charity’s ‘Turn it Purple’ campaign to raise funds and awareness for the cause.

The team have been led by their work colleague Jean Keast who lost her brother Paul to the disease.

November is the month when the charity Pancreatic Cancer Action and its supporters focus on raising awareness of the killer disease about which levels of understanding and funding for treatment, are very low. The current UK survival rate is only 7%.

The charity’s flagship ‘Turn it Purple’ campaign aims to raise consciousness by encouraging people, places even landmarks all over the UK to ‘Turn it Purple’.

At the company’s National Service Centre in Yelverton, Devon staff have dressed in purple, held raffles with purple prizes and cooked and sold purple themed food and cakes.

Since she began her fundraising, Jean has raised £5774.72 with around another £200 raised this week from her TH March colleagues.

By the end of November Jean is hoping for an additional £1000 from all the shops and businesses supporting her purple butterfly campaign (part of a UK-wide ‘Display it Purple’ campaign ) in her home town of Tavistock, Devon.

In December there will be more fundraising when Jean has a Christmas tree at her local church’s annual Christmas Tree festival. Her purple themed tree will be dedicated to the memory of those who lost their fight against Pancreatic Cancer.

Jean said: “I am very grateful to my work colleagues for their ongoing support. Since losing my much-loved brother Paul to this cruel disease I am passionate about helping others to learn, understand and support. Early detection gives patients a fighting chance and funding for more research is urgently needed.”