A MAJOR fundraising event to combat breast cancer planned in Witney hangs in the balance due to a major lack of volunteers.

The annual Pink Day has run each year for 14 years and sees the town filled with 1,000 pink balloons, and stalls set up to raise funds for the Abingdon-based charity Against Breast Cancer.

However, this year the Against Breast Cancer Witney Action Team will have to cancel the October 3 event unless it sees a huge surge in people coming forward to man the stalls, make cakes and blow up balloons. Jeane Chattoe, 66, first started fundraising 25 years ago after her younger sister, Delia Winkler, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died of the disease ten years later and that was when Mrs Chattoe started Pink Day.

Since then Mrs Chattoe has raised £300,000 to fight the disease and has battled it twice herself.

The mother-of-two, who lives in Witney, said: “The town has always supported us really well but we just don’t have enough helpers. I know so many people who are affected by breast cancer but it’s not just them, it’s the impact on their families as well.

“My sister died when she was 41 and I just carried on fundraising. When someone has suffered from something like that you feel so impotent you want to do something to help.”

Many shops in the town traditionally support Pink Day with collection boxes and by decorating their windows.

To volunteer with the Pink Day email witneyinthepink@gmail.com or call Jeanne Chattoe on 01993 848539.