Dashwood Mausoleum in West Wycombe to turn purple in Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month

Picture credit Piers Photography.

From Thursday 17th November 2016, World Pancreatic Cancer day, the Dashwood Mausoleum in West Wycombe is taking part in Pancreatic Cancer Action’s ‘Turn It Purple’ campaign in aid of pancreatic cancer awareness.

The building will shine purple to mark Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month to help generate discussion and awareness of pancreatic cancer and its symptoms to drive earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments for pancreatic cancer..

Every year, almost 9,000 men and women will be newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and due to late diagnosis, they will be faced with a shockingly low three per cent chance of survival and an average life expectancy of just three to six months.

Pancreatic Cancer Action’s ‘Turn it Purple‘ campaign calls for businesses and individuals to highlight the fifth deadliest cancer in the UK by embracing purple – the symbolic colour for pancreatic cancer – by shining purple lights on buildings or other structures in their community, and for supporters to wear something purple at the office, at home or at school.

Sir Edward Dashwood from the West Wycombe Estate said: ‘We are looking forward to taking part in ‘Turn it Purple’ this year and hope it will create a lot awareness for pancreatic cancer.

You should be able to see the building lit in purple from miles around and we hope that you will support the cause.‘

Mary Hilder added ‘Unfortunately this has proved more difficult than anticipated as we have orange sodium lights and trying to turn an orange light purple is very difficult and our first attempt failed then A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd then suggested that we used blue correction filters below the purple filters and thankfully this seems to have worked.‘

Picture credit Piers Photography.

Ali Stunt, CEO at Pancreatic Cancer Action, said ‘Each year we are overwhelmed by the huge numbers of supporters who embrace the colour purple to raise awareness. We are delighted that Dashwood Mausoleum are taking part. It’s thanks to their participation that the event will become a success and more people will become aware.‘

Ozma Hafiz said: ‘A really big thank you to everyone helping to raise awareness. This has been a real community project from deciding which building to light up to capturing and sharing the final result.

Special thanks to Mrs Mary Hilder and the team at West Wycombe Estate for all their hard work, Jonathan Hilder of Piers Photography, and others, for the photographs and local company A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd for kindly donating the special filter gels.

Wycombe library also have an information stall! In literature from the charity, pancreatic cancer has been called ‘The Cinderella Cancer’. This is because there haven’t been any proper developments in over 40 years.

We have had lots of supportive messages from local people who have lost loved ones to this disease. Some famous names who have died from pancreatic cancer include: Alan Rickman, Patrick Swayze, Denise Robertson, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Steve Jobs and Pavarotti.‘

Further information on how to take part in the ‘Turn It Purple‘ campaign or to find out more about pancreatic cancer can be found at www.pancreaticcanceraction.org.