Yeovil Town Football Club goes pink for cancer unit appeal

Yeovil Town football players will wear pink kits in hope of raising money for the town's new breast cancer unit

A football club will be wearing pink kits to raise money for a new cancer unit.

Asking fans to donate and also go pink, Yeovil Town will wear the kits in their game against Braintree on 28 October.

Money raised will go towards the new breast cancer unit at Yeovil District Hospital.

Karina Parsons was diagnosed with cancer five years ago and said it was "wonderful" for her beloved club to dedicate the game.

The new dedicated breast cancer unit will include a counselling space, a changing room, a fitting room for special bras and prostheses and a mammography room and separate ultrasound rooms.

'Might be a different story'

Ms Parsons, who has fundraised for the new dedicated breast cancer unit through a number of different ways including bake sales and bucket collections, said she had no concerns before deciding to go for a mammogram after a "card came through the door".

She said: "I wasn't due for one and I thought I will go and thank goodness I did.

"If it had been a year and a half later, it might have been a different story," she added.

"The cancer was behind the breast bone so I wouldn't have found it."

Fans attending the game on 28 October are also being urged to wear pink

Ms Parsons, who had to undergo different procedures, biopsies, operations and spouts of radiotherapy, said the new unit will mean so much to people who are going through cancer treatment.

Ms Parsons said "having a central place" with "everything under one umbrella" would make the world of difference.

"At present its done in the women's hospital which isn't appropriate because men get breast cancer as well," he added.

'Wear pink'

Yeovil Town Football Club owner, Martin Hellier said it would be "fantastic" to see the stands adorned in pink shirts and to get the "fundraiser over the line to the target" amount.

He said: "Every person coming here and contributing will be contributing to the health of future generations.

"Wear pink. Come to the game. Fill the stadium up. Wave the flags. Put your hand in your pockets.

"It's so local. It affects to many of us, every single person, every family and you're doing something which puts that unit in this town," he added.

The appeal has so far raised over £2.4m.