“Giving women with cancer the chance to move on with their lives”
– Hull Daily Mail , 1st Nov 2013
Hull & East Riding Breast Friends is a registered charity and a member of the Fundraising Regulator and Information Commissioner’s Office. It is run by volunteers, supported by a full time member of staff, who themselves have been affected by breast cancer.
HER Breast Friends was founded in November 2005 as a result of the friendship formed between Jan Jones and Liz Drury during treatment for breast cancer. They recognised no matter how breast cancer touched your life, there was a will and a need to do something positive with the experience and the idea of HER Breast Friends began.
Jan and Liz realised there was a need for a group that didn’t focus on the disease, but brought together the courage, strengths and determination of those affected for the benefit of all local people affected by breast cancer.
Working together, we can help you do something positive with the experience as many of our members have shown. We have been very privileged to witness some of the positive changes that have come about in the lives of many of our members through their involvement with the Charity. Some have gone on to volunteer with us, fundraise for us, realise their inner strengths or fulfil an uplifting and empowering challenge or journey. For example, Eileen used her experience of breast cancer to spur her on to do something positive, not only volunteering with the Charity but flying a small aircraft across Australia; or our founder Jan who completed the Olympic Bobsleigh run at Innsbruck.
This is very much what HER Breast Friends is about!
Of course, not everyone who joins us will want to partake in a personal adventure on the scale of Eileen’s or Jan’s, but others go on to help the Charity in various other ways. Simply by joining us we will provide you with encouragement and support wherever you are in your breast cancer journey to go forward and in turn help others who will undoubtedly follow.
Through our projects and activities, empowering people with resources and workshops to inform and educate, HER Breast Friends provides an outlet for breast cancer survivors to share their skills and experiences.
In 2015 HER Breast Friends organised a range of special events and activities to celebrate 10 years of supporting local people affected by breast cancer. The theme for our special year was “Caterpillars to Butterflies” to demonstrate the growth and development of HER Breast Friends and the strengths, qualities and values at the very heart of the Charity: the ability to inspire, encourage and transform fearful negatives into real and lasting positives.
‘What a caterpillar perceives is the end; to the butterfly is just the beginning’
– Lao Tzu
The Charity is recognised by the Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust as having a positive contribution towards the recovery of patients, and we have been invited to participate in conferences and seminars. They recognise the value of our work and the benefits to all.
Our focus is very much on wellbeing; not on the disease—survivorship!
We are very proud of where the Charity is today and we hope you will want to come and join us.
Our Team
We could not operate without the tremendous support of our Members and Volunteers who very kindly donate their times, skills and energies in support of local people affected by breast cancer, and these include the Board of Trustees who govern the Charity, all of whom are members and volunteers. They are:
- Founder Jan Jones
- Chairman Pam Trays
- Vice Chair Sandra Cooper
- Treasurer Stephen Henderson
- Other Trustees Colleen Barber, Melanie Clark, De Hempstock, Lynne Maskell, Simon Trays and Lynda Whincup
- Charity Manager Jayne Beck
