Today I attended Breast Cancer Now’s Wear It Pink event. Although it was a lot of fun to get dressed up and take a picture, there was a very serious message behind the event.

Across Wirral, 1008 women a year develop breast cancer. This is around 188 per 100,000 women, which is well above the national average of 170 women in every 100,000. Sadly, around 213 women lose their lives every year to breast cancer in Wirral.

More than 55,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK. However, the number of women across the country who attend their breast cancer screening declining over the last decade from 74.8% in 2005-6 to 71.1% in 2016-17, it is crucial that we raise awareness and work to discover how to prevent, detect early and effectively treat breast cancer at every stage.

Breast Cancer Now are the UK’s largest breast cancer charity and do vital work funding research into the disease, with 85 research grants worth almost £26.5 million across the UK, including at the University of Liverpool. That’s why I’ll be supporting Breast Cancer Now’s Wear It Pink campaign this year. You join me, and Breast Cancer Now by signing up here: wearitpink.org/mp2018!