[A] special event for women who had undergone mastectomy surgery was held at Marks and Spencer in Barrow.
The store on Dalton Road had specialist bra fitters and other members of staff on hand to help everyone find the best fitting bras for them on Monday, April 23.
More than 25 women attended the friendly event and all had breast cancer or were recovering from the disease.
Rachel Minshull, from the CancerCare charity at the Furness Centre on Warwick Road in Barrow, was also there to provide support and advice.
She said: “The clothing area was fully open for ladies to browse and purchase from during the evening. M&S provided some drinks and nibbles – they even went so far as to make a cups of tea when requested!
“The ladies were offered a free measuring service and shown a very wide range of mastectomy bras, post-surgery breast forms for inside bras and swimwear.”
Vanessa Willison-Pirie, a breast cancer survivor who works as a bra fitter at M&S and had successfully run a previous event in Lancaster, helped to organise the Barrow evening.
Helen Townson brought along a selection of Tropics skin, body and hair care products for people to test. All were available to order on the night. Helen kindly donates money from all sales of her Tropics skincare range to CancerCare.
Rachel added: “The evening had a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
“Lots of chatting went on. The M&S staff were friendly and completely knew their stuff. Many ladies bought new underwear after realising they had been wearing the wrong size.
“As a CancerCare representative, I was happy to see such an event taking place for the ladies of Barrow and Ulverston.”
Several of the women who attended the event also had ‘CancerCare selfies’ to back the charity’s National Lottery People’s Projects campaign in Barrow. People are being urged to vote for ‘CancerCare – We’ll Be There’ until April 30 on the People’s Projects website at: https://www.thepeoplesprojects.org.uk/projects/region/granada
For support for anyone affected by cancer, CancerCare in Barrow can be contacted via email at [email protected] or on 01229 384 084. The website address is www.cancercare.org.uk
