Isle of Man Newspapers is teaming up with Breakthrough Breast Cancer to raise £31,170 – a pound for every woman aged over 18 in the Island – in just one month.

The fund-raising challenge will be launched next week when the first edition of a new magazine, Outlook, will be delivered free to homes each month with the Independent’s sister paper, the Isle of Man Courier.

The papers are confident they can meet the target during October – breast cancer awareness month. An envelope will be sent out with the Courier asking for every reader to put a pound in and send it back.

Breakthrough’s vision is for a future free from the fear of breast cancer and it raises funds for important research in the hope that discovering the causes of the disease, finding methods of prevention and developing new treatments will ultimately lead to the eradication of breast cancer.

But the IOM press campaign is not just about raising money – it’s also about heightening public awareness of a cancer that affects one in nine women.

IOM Newspapers’ managing director Trudi Williamson said: “We were approached by Olga Gray from Breakthrough to see if we could raise awareness of the charity in the Isle of Man.

“We offered to join forces with Breakthrough and raise the money, which will be split between Breakthrough, Noble’s Hospital’s breast care fund and the Isle of Man Anti-Cancer Association.

“The issue was very close to home. Olga’s daughter, Michelle Taggart, has fought cancer for many years and Michelle’s husband, Paul, is a journalist who used to work with many of our colleagues on the Isle of Man Weekly Times and the Isle of Man Examiner.

“This is why we feel it is the right thing to do. There is hardly a family in the Isle of Man which has not at some time been touched by cancer and this is a great opportunity for us all to do something really positive.

“We thought it was an excellent opportunity to mark the launch of both the campaign and Outlook.

“We have been working on Outlook for a year now. The need for the magazine arose from market research carried out by the International Business School last summer and it will be the first of many changes that will be seen to our papers.

“We are working on re-styling all of our titles, improving our products and there will be a number of changes for both the reader and the advertiser.”

The campaign will be officially launched at the end of next month by a visiting TV celebrity and there are several exciting fund-raising events and activities planned for October. They include a ‘girls in leather’ motorbike parade, in conjunction with the police, and a function at Castletown Golf Links.

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