PLEASE NOTE – ALL MY COSTS ARE BEING MET BY OUR HOSTS, IGNIS ASSET MANAGEMENT, SO ANY MONEY YOU DONATE GOES TO CHARITY. DIG DEEP!

Many of you will know that my other (she says better) half, Fran, has been fighting breast cancer since she was diagnosed in September last year. Despite it being an aggressive tumour, she responded very well to treatment and is well on her way to recovery.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the UK, accounting for almost a third of all female cancers. In 2009, almost 50,000 women were diagnosed and although almost half of cases are found among women of 65 years and over, a frightening number of younger women are diagnosed each year.

The last nine months has been a long and at times painful, journey. My own role has been by far the easier but I am thankful the high profile this pernicious disease has received over the past couple of decades has resulted in the development of safer and more effective treatment. 

I'm not one for fundraising – I generally support others in their efforts. But this disease has played a major role in my family for generations. My dad was only a teenager when he lost his mother to breast cancer in the 1950s. She was 41 years old.  

So I am grateful to Ignis for the opportunity to be able to make a direct contribution to furthering the understanding of this disease and perhaps play a small part in ending its influence over my own family of course, but more than half the population in general.

I know there's a recession on, so if you can't DIG DEEP, dig shallow. But do dig...

If everyone I sent a link to this page to gives a quid, that will raise a lot of money. If you can give a quid, can you afford two? 

Now, this part is important. Don't forget to use GIFT AID because this makes whatever you donate 25% better without any additional effort on your part.

That makes whatever you do a fifth better than if you didn't do it. It will also make you feel better about yourself and your money could make a real difference In the future. So don't do it for me, do it for yourself.

And in case you're not decided yet, here are a few more reasons. 

1) Nearly 50,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK – one every 10 minutes.

 2) Just over 12,000 people die from breast cancer in the UK every year. That's 33 every day.

 3) Breast cancer is the second biggest cause of death from cancer for women in the UK, after lung cancer.

4) There are an estimated 550,000 people living in the UK today who have had a diagnosis of breast cancer. That's 1 in every 113 people in the country, and more than half of those are female. 

5) In women under the age of 35, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer.

So, even if you don't know anyone affected by breast cancer now, you will in time. And that could be someone very close to you. To help to reduce the chances of that prematurely ending their life has got be worth a couple of quid, hasn't it?

Thank you.

Pádraig