MATTHEW WILLIAMSON:
We’re absolutely thrilled to let you know that Monsoon have now made £20,000 for Too Many Women through the sale of the gorgeous Matthew Williamson bracelets! The bracelets are still on sale but are running out fast, so if you’ve been looking for the first addition to your spring/summer wardrobe then look no further! Get your super summery bracelet for only £15 at any Monsoon/Accessorize near you, or you can view and buy it here:

ALL SAINTS:
More brilliant news as All Saints announced that they’ve sold out of the uber cool limited edition t-shirts they created for Too Many Women following their sponsorship of the incerdible Petersham Nurseries Dinner and Party. The t-shirts raised a fantastic £2,032 for Too Many Women.

LOOKING FOR A BOOST?
If you’ve got post Christmas blues and are in need of a winter boost, treat yourself to one of the Too Many Women bargains below. And it’s guilt-free as each product carries a fantastic donation to Too Many Women!

• A limited edition Guess Watch is on sale with a massive 15% donation to the charity. You can buy it at H. Samuels or online at: http://www.hsamuel.co.uk/
  

• Brighten-up the dark winter days with a little Daisy Jewellery sunshine. Their stunning pink chakkra bracelets have been a massive hit and are selling out fast. Each bracelet carries a whopping 15% donation to the charity. View online and buy here: http://www.daisyjewellery.com/retail_english/jewellery/breakthrough-breast-cancer-neon-chakra.html
  

• Or try your hand at a bit of celebrity wardrobe raising by having a look at Fashion Bloodhound’s website to grab yourself a glamorous bargain! http://www.fashionbloodhound.com/celebrity-campaign/
  

We hope you have a HAPPY JANUARY!

X

The event marked the phenomenal achievement of reaching the £1million target (!) and was attended by the Too Many Women Founders, Harry & Catriona, many of the TMW suppporters, Breakthrough Breast Cancer staff, including the Chief Exec Chris Askew and Breakthrough Scientists from the Research Centre, who’s pioneering and life-saving breast cancer research work is being funded by the £1million raised by the Too Many Women campaign.

It was a really lovely evening filled with conversation about what the million pounds will help fund, how the target was reached and lots of Christmas drinks and mince pies!

To see photos from the event click on the link below:
http://toomanywomen.co.uk/photoboard/?album=1&gallery=34

You may remember last year the magical Winter Wonderland that took place in Hyde Park. This year  Too Many Women have been given a certain number of tickets for their special preview night on Thursday 17 November.

Instead of paying for all the rides (which are normally very expensive)  they will all be free and the one-off ticket price will go straight to charity. Half to The Royal Parks Foundation and half to Too Many Women.

Tickets are £25 for adults and £20 for children. You can book online at:
http://regonline.activeeurope.com/2011hydeparkwinterwonderlandcharitypreviewnight
Just remember to put in our special code word which is: icicle

Tickets to this special preview night will stop being sold at 3 pm this Friday the 11 November.

This is a really lovely evening out and just some of the wintery wonders on offer include:
• London’s largest outdoor ice rink
• Zippos Circus
• The iconic Giant Observation Wheel with heated pods giving a wonderful view across London
• Funfair rides and exhilarating roller coasters
• Santa Land – rides in miniature – great for the youngsters!

I’m sure that lots of you go to Winter Wonderland already, so why not have your money go to charity this time round?!

Please feel free to forward this on to friends, family and work colleagues and whoever you think would be interested.

Scientists have developed a cost effective test to help identify which of the 37,000 women diagnosed with ER positive breast cancer each year are at risk of the disease returning. The scientists are from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and Queen Mary, University of London and are funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Cancer Research UK and The Royal Marsden NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. They believe this approach, which could be rolled out within the next 1 to 2 years, will help doctors identify high risk patients early on, allowing for more targeted treatment and avoiding unnecessary chemotherapy for those at lower risk of recurrence.

Study co-leader Professor Mitch Dowsett, from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the ICR and The Royal Marsden Hospital, said:
“This is excellent news for women who are diagnosed with ER positive breast cancer. It is a major step towards more personalised and targeted treatment of breast cancer, which will mean that women can avoid unnecessary chemotherapy and its toxic side effects.”

For more information visit: http://www.breakthrough.org.uk/media_centre/news_views/test_predicts_cancer.html

Thank you to all who supported the event, including our sponsors All Saints & Vault Couture, and of course to all our wonderful guests that helped make this phenomenal amount raised for Breakthrough Breast Cancer possible. It was a very special and very memorable night. It’s so inspiring to remember that it was only 2 years ago that Too Many Women began and that now we are nearly at the million.

To see photos from the night visit: http://toomanywomen.co.uk/photoboard/?album=1&gallery=33

My initial fear was not so much about having to have my tits cut off – at that point I could have done it myself if it meant I didn’t have to have cancer – no, my huge fear was that I would not live to see my two beautiful, beloved daughters grow up. They were 11 and 14 at the time – the idea that I would lose them and that they would lose me was truly terrifying.

But I was lucky, spared, saved by the brilliant doctors and surgeons who looked after me. That Christmas was over eleven years ago and I have been grateful for every single day, every moment that I have been able to see, love and support my wonderful husband and our girls who bring us so much joy.

Harry Becher was not so fortunate – Judes, his lovely Mother, died from Breast Cancer almost three years ago – and Harry has decided to fight back. He valiantly set himself the challenge to raise a Million Pounds, within a year, with his Too Many Women Campaign for Breakthrough Breast Cancer – to help them nail this disease – they are getting there and so is he…  with only £150,000 still to go he is almost there.

Masses of brilliant people have done lots of wonderful events…so I thought I would do a Non-Event – well summer is here – the schools are out and surf’s up – you’re glad I’m not actually asking you to do anything aren’t you?!

Well of course I am asking you to do something…but it will only take a minute…and then you can skip off into the Summer feeling good because you have been very, very generous! Just click HERE http://www.justgiving.com/louise-fennell0/ and give it all you’ve got to help lovely Harry reach his target…

However much you are able to give to the Campaign – Harry, I and all the people at Breakthrough – will all be very grateful and you will have made a real difference – not just to the future outcomes of our Mothers, Sisters and Friends…but you will also have contributed to the research that could mean our daughters and their daughters will be completely spared this horror and pain – by a pill perhaps? or a jab? – now isn’t that something to look forward to?

I know everyone is always asking you for money – you have probably done something for this Campaign already? But if not and you can spare a bit of dosh to spare a lot of women’s lives…then please just press on the link…here it is again…

http://www.justgiving.com/louise-fennell0/

Pioneering scientists at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre (which Too Many Women are raising money for)  have created the world’s first encyclopedia of genes that drive breast cancer. It is hoped that new targeted treatments leading directly from this work will be in clinical trials in the next few years.

The ground-breaking project is a big step towards forming a complete picture of the weak points in breast cancer cells. The data are now being made freely available for other scientists around the world to use, so that new targets for treatments can be found more rapidly and to encourage collaboration and co-operation in the fight against the disease.

THE SCIENCE
Tumour cells have large numbers of genetic mutations, however many of these are coincidental alterations that do not contribute to the development of cancer. The scientists used the latest screening technology to look at thousands of genes in many different types of breast cancer. They then painstakingly sifted through the results to identify the genetic faults critical for the survival of each particular sub-type.

THE IMPACT
This work in the laboratory highlights the promise of these drugs and suggests which patients are likely to benefit from them. Work now has to be done to further understand the way in which these drugs work in this group of patients. Now the method has been shown a success, the scientists are continuing their work to identify all of the key genes for all breast cancer sub-types.

Study author Dr Chris Lord, from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the ICR in London, said:
“This could have huge ramifications in the fight against cancer. Creating an encyclopedia of breast cancer allows us to gain the big picture of the disease. It gives us a clear sight of the chinks in breast cancer cells’ armour. We have made this data freely available to all because we know it is only through working together that we will defeat this disease.”

Professor Alan Ashworth, Chief Executive of the ICR and co-author, said:
“We have made a big first step towards a comprehensive understanding of breast cancer and how to break down its defences. With this knowledge we can develop new targeted treatments to kill cancer cells with particular defects. This points towards a future of personalised medicine, where each patient receives the right treatment for their specific type of disease.”

See below for are our Top 3 reasons why!

1. In just over 4 weeks you have helped to raise almost £100,000 for Too Many Women, taking the total raised for the entire campaign so far up to a phenomenal £790,000 and with pledges £850,000!

Here’s just a snippet of some of the things that have helped get us there:
- Bear Maclean’s Iron Man Challenge which has raised nearly £30K including gift aid:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=BearMaclean
- A kids fancy-dress scooter race, which raised over £6K:

2. Too Many Women scooped not one, but TWO incredible Institute of Fundraising National Awards on the 4^th July (the equivalent of the Oscars of the Charity World!). These were:
- ‘The Most Innovative Fundraising Campaign 2011’ Award
- ‘Volunteer Fundraisers of the Year 2011’ Award for Harry & Catriona
Click on the link for more information: http://toomanywomen.co.uk/blog/2011/07/06/tmw-scoops-two-awards/

These awards are fantastic recognition of the huge amount of time, effort and passion that has been put into making the campaign the success it is by all our amazing supporters, including you!

3. The funds you’ve raised for Too Many Women have helped lead to a new discovery this month at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre. The discovery has opened up a potentially highly effective avenue of attack in the fight against all forms of the disease. 

It’s been picked as the Mail on Sunday’s blog of the week and for anyone who has ever found themselves touched by someone with breast cancer, or any type of cancer, (which I imagine most of us have) and loves fashion (most of us too?!) this is definitely worth a read – I’ve even subscribed to it:

http://www.sophiefeelsbetter.blogspot.com

This is an important step towards personalised medicine and will help to shed light on why cancer patients can fail to respond to some chemotherapy drugs as well as reveal a new way of targeting resistant tumours.

WHAT IS IT?
Until recently, it was thought cells could only die through a process called apoptosis. Because apoptosis is often blocked in cancer cells, drugs frequently don’t work, allowing tumour cells to grow and spread. In work published today online in the Molecular Cell journal, the team found some chemotherapeutics actually worked through a newly-discovered form of cell death, known as necroptosis.

Importantly, they found in the laboratory it was possible to activate a set of proteins and push cancer cells into this form of cell death, raising hope of new targeted treatments that could also kill apoptosis-resistant tumour cells.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Study leader Professor Pascal Meier, from the Breakthrough Research Centre said:
“These findings represent a new line of attack in the fight against cancer. Chemotherapy has been around for decades but we have never understood how it kills cancer cells. This work shows not only that it can happen by two different processes, but how drugs can be developed to activate this newly discovered second cell-killing process in a much smarter, more effective way. We are at an early stage with this work but it could represent a new way of thinking about how we treat cancer patients in the future.”

Dr Julia Wilson, Head of Research Management at Breakthrough said:
“This work is a major advance in our understanding of how cancer cells work, and how we can combat the disease. It suggests we can use chemotherapy more intelligently, and develop treatments which more precisely exploit this newfound weakness for the benefit of patients. We want to make sure that all breast cancer patients get the right treatment for them and this is a step towards that goal.”

Any questions please email leahm@breakthrough.org.uk or call her on 020 7025 0275