The Samoa Cancer Society collected a total of $34,000 from all the Pinktober fundraising activities last month. 

Society’s C.E.O., Shelley Burich, acknowledged the support from those who kindly donated towards raising awareness for the breast cancer. 

“The Pink luncheon that we did, which was of course a S.C.S. fundraiser, we managed to raise almost $9,000 from the ticket sales and the raffle,” Ms. Burich said. 

“But of course we have expenses like paying the venue and everything. We made a profit of just $2,000, which was more than we had before the luncheon.”

Ms. Burich said the purpose of these fundraisers was to help with funding cancer awareness programmes.

“It would go to the outreach to help us get more resources like pamphlets out and cancer advertisements out and just continue getting the message out there.

“Where the money is used, it does not really change, I know that as we grow so does the expectation, of what we do.

“As the awareness grows so does the resources that we have to provide like the television advertisements and all these will go to our expenses.”

Ms. Burich said they applied for donor funding to the Civil Society Support Programme, which helps a lot with big campaigns.

“When we get donor funding for specific campaigns or projects, it is not for paying the employees’ salaries.

“So, the only way to also keep our staff employed is from just a portion of the fundraisers and donations.

“But then overall the donations are allocated in specific areas like the patients support services to help with their brochures, and also the outreach division.”

Ms. Burich said every year, they do a budget to know how much they need and then they plan how work towards achieving that set target, especially keeping their work going. 

“Pinktober has always been a success and we have witnessed so much engagement from the community, not only on social media, but from various ministries and organisation in promoting awareness for cancer.”