Fundraisers in Helston are feeling flushed with success after a successful Pink Day raised in the region of £2,000, with money still coming in.

Organiser Becky Cross said she was “gobsmacked” with the result of her day of fundraising last Friday – and the total is set to rise higher still.

The figure is without the results of an online auction that will take place this weekend, with match funding then to be given by the Helston branch of Santander.

All the effort is to benefit the Mermaid Centre at the Royal Cornwall Hospital and also raise awareness of breast cancer and the BRCA gene.

Becky, 30, underwent a risk reducing double mastectomy – effectively a way of trying to prevent breast cancer before it strikes – after discovering she was a carrier of a faulty BRCA2 gene.

The mutation, which can also affect the BRCA1 gene, hugely increases the likelihood of the carrier going on to get cancer – often to around 80 per cent – and with Becky already taking medication following a kidney transplant, her risks were even greater still.

However, Becky stressed it was not just breast cancer risks that can be heightened through the gene, with ovarian, pancreatic and testicular cancer also more likely for carriers of the mutated gene, which can be male and female.

Last Friday’s fundraising was held in two parts. During the day staff at Becky’s hair and beauty salon, Head Rush, in Coinagehall Street, gave 50 per cent of their takings to the cause and served tea and cakes all day.

They also sold raffle tickets in the run up to the day, with hundreds more then sold on Friday through a stall in the street that was manned by friends, family and staff from Santander.

It meant that by the time of the auction that evening, more than £1,000 had already been raised.

Thanks to the auction at the Angel Hotel, overseen by Ivor Mann of John Coad & Son, plus other donations – including residents of Parc Vro Nursing Home in Mawgan sending £200 and a client of the salon, who wanted to remain anonymous, giving £100 – the total is currently closer to £2,000.

This Saturday some of the higher value prizes given by businesses will be auctioned off online, on the Head Rush Facebook page.

Describing herself as “absolutely gobsmacked”, Becky said: “Honestly, I thought we would be lucky to get £500 doing a raffle and buns and donating through the day.

“Then, I think, with help from the papers it all took off so well, and all the brilliant local businesses that donated – people just got really involved with it.”

She thanked, in particular, her mum Paula Ferguson for her help and Debbie Sturgess from Santander who sold raffle tickets through the auction, plus branch manager Anthony Jones who approached her initially and all her staff, as without them “none of it would have been possible.”

Attending the auction was her surgeon Iain Brown, a consultant oncoplastic breast and general surgeon, who performed reconstruction surgery not only on Becky but also her mum who she inherited the gene from.

He now uses the pair as a case study in lectures on risk reducing surgery, including in Iceland.

Mr Brown donated a breast cancer ribbon made from pink loom bands, which was made for him by the granddaughter of one of his patients, and which was auctioned for £24.

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