FAQs

Yes. The bulk of our fundraising activities take place during October, which is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but you can hold your own fundraising activity at any time of year that suits you. You can hold more than one, if you like!

Anywhere you like! You could hold your activity: at work and invite all your colleagues, clients and suppliers; at home and invite your family, friends and neighbours or you could find a venue in the community such as a village hall, church hall, sports centre or gym. Read our fundraising ideas for more information.

Yes. Your event will be featured in a postcode search so that even more people can find out about it and take part.

When you register for a fundraising pack, one of our Area Volunteer Managers (AVMs) will be in touch to find out about your event.

Your AVM will register your event with the Join the fight website, if appropriate.

• To raise extra money you could ask everyone to donate a particular amount
• You could ask suppliers to donate prizes and then hold a raffle or auction
• Your company may have a matched-giving scheme, where for every pound that staff raise for charity, the company donates the same amount. Ask your manager if your company has such a scheme.
• You could set up an online fundraising page, which makes it even easier for people to support your fundraising and means that you don't have to collect sponsorship money after your event.

Our fundraising pack has more information about how to raise as much money as possible.

We have ribbons, invitations, sponsor forms, banners and balloons. We also have a poster that has a blank section so you can add the details of your activity. You will receive a supply of materials in your fundraising pack. If you need any more, please call us on 08701 60 20 40.

You will receive a sample press release in your fundraising pack. You simply add the details of your activity and then send it to your local papers and radio station. We also have community fundraisers and regional press officers that can help with larger events – contact details will be in your pack.

After your fundraising activity, you can return your funds by post or telephone.

If you have set up an online fundraising page with Justigiving, your funds will be collected automatically, so you don't need to do anything to return your sponsorship money.

If you would like to share your experience of breast cancer for publicity purposes, simply get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you.

You can also visit Cancer Chat, our online forum, to share your cancer information and experiences with others.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month takes place every October. It aims to raise vital funds for research into breast cancer and to encourage people to be breast aware. The symbol for Breast Cancer Awareness Month is the pink ribbon.

This October we are encouraging as many people as possible to get involved. Events will be taking place across the UK, so if you can't join in with one of our sponsored walks or other fundraising events, why not help us by organising your own activity?

Under the Government's Gift Aid scheme, Cancer Research UK can reclaim the tax paid on donations by UK taxpayers. This means that, if you pay tax in the UK, your gifts to us can increase by 25% at no extra cost to you.

For example:

If you give £10
The taxman will add £2.50
Giving a total of £12.50

The amount of tax you pay in a given financial year must be at least equal to the amount of tax reclaimed by Cancer Research UK on your donation in that same year, even if this is paid in the form of lower-rate (10 per cent) Income Tax. This amount is calculated over the whole financial year, there is no requirement that tax is paid regularly.

The amount of tax we will claim back will be at least 25 per cent of the total value of your donations in that financial year. If you are a higher taxpayer, you are entitled to claim back the difference between the standard rate which we will claim and the amount of tax you have actually paid. For further details on how you can do this, please contact your tax office.

At Cancer Research UK, we are working tirelessly to find ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. We are one of the few organisations with the ability to take the discoveries we make in the laboratory and turn them into treatments for patients.

Every penny you raise helps us continue our life-saving work to beat breast cancer and raise breast cancer awareness.

Cancer Research UK is almost entirely funded by donations from the public. Find out where your money goes and read more about our research into breast cancer.