Breast cancer fun walk set to support Hawke's Bay women

For local women facing breast cancer, the Hawke's Bay Breast Cancer Trust is a place were community and comfort can be found.

This Sunday marks the annual Tremains Breast Cancer Fun Walk where participants are encouraged to dress up as pink as possible to raise funds and awareness for the cause.

Pink walk director Paula Hadabora said it had taken months to prepare for the event and said she was blown away by the support the community had thrown behind it.

"Breast cancer doesn't just affect older women, there's a growing number of younger women in Hawke's Bay who are being affected by this. It has a huge domino effect on their families and financial situations and everything. So this is really helping people at ground level."

Kicking off at 11am at the Napier Soundshell, the pink walk will begin with entertainment from The Hits and local singers before participants prepare for the walk with a Zumba warm-up.

"Everyone's encouraged to dress up because we've then got judging before the walk starts and we have three signature prizes for the best individual female, best individual male and then most outrageous bra."

Ms Hadabora said all donations made to the charity went straight to local women through a number of community initiatives, one of them being a rehabilitative programme called Moving On.

"That's a free six-week course for women after treatment; whether it's operations, chemotherapy or radiation. We show them how to do exercises which are beneficial for the operation they've just been through.

"We also have guest speakers that come in once a week who range from breast surgeons right through to nutritionists to counsellors. It's a really good informative programme."

The event organiser said the annual pink walk, which takes participants on an easy 5km walk around town, was more about raising awareness about the trust than a fundraising exercise.

"It's a fun walk, there's no prizes for being first, there's entertainment along the way and it goes right through Napier's city centre so it's good for the businesses as well. Hopefully Napier will be having a pink blur going through it on Sunday morning."

While the walk was generally a jovial occasion, Ms Hadabora said it was important to remember the cause.

"There's a couple of sad moments too. We've got to remember why we're doing it so there's sad moments in there unfortunately."

A family who recently lost their mother to cancer will be releasing a number of doves, one of them pink, at the event, she said.

"I have to say the effort that people make to get dressed up is incredible. It absolutely astounds me every year the effort people go to.

"The local community do get behind it and I think as soon as you mention that it goes to local women people are a lot more generous about what they donate."

Anyone wishing to participate in the pink walk can register for $5 at www.eventfinda.co.nz/2017/tremain-pink-walk/napier/tickets