Boathouse lit up pink for Cambridge Pink Week

Monday 1 February 2021

St Catharine’s College lit up its boathouse this evening to celebrate the start of Cambridge Pink Week 2021, a week of events aimed at raising funds and awareness for breast cancer charities.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK population and one in seven women will get breast cancer at some point in their life.¹ Organisers are hoping to replicate the success of Cambridge Pink Week in 2020, which raised over £20,000 for breast cancer charities. As part of the #turncampink campaign, activities for 1–7 February are being organised by 50 representatives from across the different Cambridge Colleges.

Anna Gray and Evie Vennix, Co-presidents of Cambridge Pink Week 2021, explained, “Cambridge Pink Week is putting on a range of events from educational panels on breast cancer experience to HIIT workouts and Bollywood dance classes. The Pink Week team hope that now, more than ever, we can bring some light to lockdown while raising money and awareness for our charities. The St Catharine’s light show is indicative of the amazing support we receive from colleges, societies and students alike, without which we would not be able to operate, and is an amazing visual and COVID-safe way of raising awareness of breast cancer among young people.”

The St Catharine’s boathouse was chosen for the light show because of its central location in the city – on the north bank of the River Cam opposite Midsummer Common. Pink lights will be visible from 6.30pm until 9pm tonight.

Professor Sir Mark Welland, Master of St Catharine’s, comments, “I sincerely hope that tonight’s light show will inspire the Cambridge community to find out more about breast cancer and how charities are working to prevent and treat the disease. The St Catharine’s boathouse is visible along the riverbank, which means the local community can enjoy the lights if they are out for exercise during the evening and still maintain social distancing.”

The latest national lockdown forced the Pink Week organiser at St Catharine’s, PhD chemistry student Beth Cooper, to rethink the in-person events that she had originally scheduled. Instead, she has planned online events to raise awareness and funds for the Pink Week cause.

Beth adds, “Despite the difficult circumstances this year, we as a college community are determined to raise awareness for breast cancer charities. The lightshow at the boathouse is designed to inject some colour into a Monday evening in lockdown for everyone in the area. We will be fundraising this week through a number of virtual events including a quiz night and our ‘Sip & Sketch’ event, which encourages students to tackle an online drawing challenge with their favourite drink in hand.”

Find out more about Cambridge Pink Week 2021 at https://www.cambridgepinkweek.com/