As Walk the Walk prepares to take place in the capital for the last time, charity boss Nina Barough, CBE, Chief Executive says that at one point the charity paid out 80p in the £ but now pays out less than 50p in each £1 raised.
Ms Barough explained that the charity which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year has had an “incredibly difficult time since Covid” when they were unable to hold any events.
She said: “We’re still – believe it or not – five years later – still recovering.”
But the amount which is available to make grants to breast cancer charities does change – and it also depends on how much people raise.
The charity founder said: “People’s ability to raise over the past few years has been less than it was previously. There’s been a lot of financial pressures on everyone which has had a massive impact on all charities, not just us.
“That spreads into events and holding events and then there’s all the health and the safety. It feels a bit endless actually for all of us in every direction at the moment. But I think the important thing is that we are still here, we’re still very relevant and although the work we do has continued to be re-evaluated and changed.”
Last time in Edinburgh
As the charity gets ready for its last event in Edinburgh before moving to a new, as yet unnamed city, the founder of the grant-making breast cancer charity explained how it all began.
Nina outlined that the charity began as she and a group of her friends travelled to New York to walk in the marathon there – all while wearing bras. The group of women raised £25,000 which Ms Barough said “felt like £25 million at the time”.
She continued: “At that point it was going to be a one-off never-to-be-repeated event. Of course here we are 30 years later.”
She said: “I had this dream that I power walked the New York City Marathon in a bra to raise money for breast cancer. And, you know, going back to that time, nobody spoke about breast cancer. Nobody spoke about cancer. It was very much the C word and was thought to be a death sentence. If the truth be known I didn’t know anyone with cancer and I’d never done any fundraising. What I really loved was the idea of a weekend in New York with some girlfriends. This particular dream stuck around for a few days. I got a group of people together and there were 13 of us who went to New York and had an absolute ball.”
She spoke of the more controversial side of what they were doing. She said: “It got people talking about breast cancer, and it was also a lot of fun. I think that we really ignited bringing cancer out into the open. People didn’t sit in the pub and talk about decorating a bra or breasts – it’s one of those unquantifiable things. But I think it really formed the movement that brought cancer out into the open and gave permission for people to talk about it. So here we are now, 30 years later and over £155 million raised.”
Nina believes that Walk the Walk has been in Edinburgh for much longer than she anticipated, and that people loved coming up to the capital, but it is time to move on to another city now. She said: “We’ve achieved such a lot in Scotland. We’ve built Maggie’s Centres, we’ve renovated hospitals, mammography units, we’ve built an operating theatre and we’ve invested highly into integrated care. Certainly during Covid when a number of charities were really struggling just to keep going we did emergency funding for a number of charities in Scotland. So it is with a heavy heart but we hope that the curiosity of where we’re going next will continue to attract people to our new location.”
Walk the Walk have run targeted campaigns in the past including Men get Breast Cancer too, and have concentrated funds on developing scalp cooling which according to Nina were “our own projects”. But she spoke proudly of the funding for integrated care which is “the physical and emotional support that somebody on their cancer journey will now get. Years ago you would never find this. We have really been at the forefront. This kind of help is all the care that supports you emotionally and makes such a difference. None of that existed until we started funding it.”
Walk the Walk also pioneered the scalp cooling treatment when they were approached by a company which had developed the technology, keeping the cap worn by a cancer patient having chemotherapy at a constant cold temperature. Nina said: “The programme was supposed to run for four years but in fact we still have machines out there now. It ran for 14 years and we invested millions. It was not life saving. It was a choice – but to a young mum for example not wanting to lose her hair it was a really important choice. We placed some of the first machines on the Isle of Skye where they had scalp cooling machines way before some of the big hospitals in London. I think that is such a tremendous achievement and I’m very proud of it.”
Eventually the NHS have taken over providing the scalp cooling machines due to demand, but Walk the Walk prompted them to do this by introducing them in the first place.
Nina concluded: “We’ve come such a long way in 30 years but we can’t say yet that we’ve arrived. We are however a lot further than we were. And the outlook is a lot more positive than it ever has been. But at the moment we are re-evaluating and thinking what is going to make the biggest difference now? What does cancer need now? And I think that the decision to move the Moonwalk is also tied in with looking at making sure our funds go to where they are most needed.”
Walk the Walk Edinburgh will take place on 6 September with those taking part either walking solo or with a team joining hundreds of others who pass through Edinburgh during the night while wearing a decorated bra – and raising some much needed funds.
