Town filled with hundreds of bras for cancer group

The bras were hung up by members of the Pontefract and District Breast Cancer Support Group

More than 1,000 bras have been hung up around a town in West Yorkshire to raise awareness of a support group for women with breast cancer.

Rachel Brown decorated railings and streets in Pontefract with the donated undergarments with help from the town's civil society.

She also enlisted the help of the other members of the Pontefract and District Breast Cancer Support Group and their husbands.

Ms Brown, who set up the organisation in 2015 after being diagnosed with breast cancer a year earlier, said it was "fantastic" to see 10 more women join the group due to the bras being on show.

"We got them up by members of the Pontefract Civil Society doing one row of the bras - and then the rest were done by ladies in the group's husbands, and also my husband, with ladders," Ms Brown said.

"I can't thank the community enough for coming together to support us, as we must have had more than 1,000 bras donated."

The bras have been hung on railings and on Ropergate in Pontefract

Ms Brown, from Wakefield, said she wanted to set up a support group after she finished her treatment and found it was an "isolating experience which affects you mentally".

The organisation started with seven members but now up to 451 people attend the weekly coffee mornings.

Members also sit with other women during their chemotherapy treatment.

More than 1,000 bras have been put up around the town

"We laugh and have fun and it's a great group of ladies," Ms Brown said.

"We fundraise to have trips away to Scarborough every year, Christmas parties, meals out, and more than £1,000 of our fundraising has gone to Pinderfields Hospital, where ladies get diagnosed with breast cancer."

She said that people had joined the group from as far away as Dubai and Scotland.

But she said she was pleased she was making an impact around Pontefract too with the bra decorations.

"I've been driving through and it makes me smile to see them - it is emotional to see."

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