People are being asked to wear pink over two days and help fundraise during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

This is being asked for this Friday and Saturday when a series of events are being held for the charity Breast Cancer Now.

Local businesses so far involved are the Co-operative store in Mill Hill, Deal, the Coastguard pub at St Margaret's Bay and The White House Kent hair and beauty parlour in Victoria Road, Deal.

On Friday The White House will have a tombola and raffle throughout the day and that evening at The Coastguard, there is a comedy night with fundraising.

On Saturday at Mill Hill Coop, there will be activities including soak the staff in stocks a raffle, tombola and sweepstakes.

Spearheading the effort is Kerry Banks who has been a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Now since 2006.

The first event she then organised was when a friend of hers, Julie Mortimer, was diagnosed with the disease for the second time. She died in 2010, aged just 41.

Mrs Banks said: "I was determined that her legacy would live on through my fundraising and raising awareness for others.

" I truly believe in the charity’s vision that together, by 2050, people will get breast cancer however they will live and live well but only if we all act now “

Wear It Pink is one of the UK’s biggest fundraising events. Each year thousands of people across the UK wear pink and fundraise for Breast Cancer Now.

This is its 20th year, with more than £36 million raised since 2002.

Since March 2020,when coronavirus first gripped the country, the doors to hundreds of Breast Cancer Now’s community support events have had to close.

“Breast cancer hasn’t stopped for the pandemic."

Researchers were kept out of their laboratories for 100 days or more and the charity says this has taken away vital lifelines from people that need them, and research is at risk of slowing.

Summer Kendrick, Wear It Pink manager at Breast Cancer Now, said:"The pandemic has had a huge impact on Breast Cancer Now’s ability to deliver the progress and support that people affected by breast cancer rely on us for now more than ever.

“Breast cancer hasn’t stopped for the pandemic.

"Over the past year people have been diagnosed with the disease at a time when everything from treatment to screenings have been disrupted, making the support that we provide, and the hope our research generates, a vital lifeline."

Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer, with around 55,000 women and 370 men being diagnosed each year.

An estimated 600,000 people in the UK are alive after a diagnosis and one in seven women will develop the disease in their lifetime.

Around 11,500 women and 80 men still die from it every year in the UK, with hundreds of thousands more living with the long-term physical and emotional impacts.

Read more: All the latest news from Deal