Pink Week 2022: Celebrations all across Cambridge

Pink Week is a week of events all aimed at promoting awareness of breast cancer and raising funds for breast cancer charities, which include Future Dreams, Coppafeel, Teenage Cancer Trust and Breast Cancer UK in 2022. First launched in Cambridge at Clare College in 2014, Pink Week now spans the entirety of Cambridge, “with over fifty representatives spread out across the Cambridge Colleges.”

But organizing uni-wide events is no mean feat.  The Tab spoke to the pair behind this Herculean task – Cambridge Pink Week’s college rep coordinators, Annabel and Nancy – about how Cambridge intends to celebrate Pink Week 2022.

Image credits: provided by Annabel Morgan

What a uni-wide Pink Week looks like

All the college reps have to do “a formal, an educational event, and another event,” claims Nancy. “What quite a lot of the reps have done is an educational talk before the formal begins.”

Annabel asserts that “a formal is such a great opportunity for people to come together, so if we can use that as a space to educate men and women about the prevalence of breast cancer and the importance of checking yourself, I think that’s really important.”

Cambridge Pink Week’s Instagram account is also steadily releasing term cards for college events. These range from bake-offs to performances to swaps with other colleges – you can find them all here.

By the way, you should definitely keep an eye on your college’s Porters’ Lodge – Nancy says that “a lot of [college reps] have been organising the porters to wear pink bow ties or pink ribbons and decorate Plodge.”

And, funnily enough, you’re probably going to see a lot more pink during Pink Week. Annabel intends to “be wearing solely pink that entire week.”

How attending a Pink Week event helps the cause

Proceeds from formal hall tickets and donations all contribute to pushing your college closer to its donations target, which (like everything at Cambridge) varies from college to college. By attending Pink Week events at your college, you’re contributing to charities – all whilst learning more about breast cancer.

In particular, for formal halls, some colleges have added on a surcharge to tickets – from which a fixed proportion goes to Pink Week (£1 for some colleges and up to £3 for others). Pink Week reps at other Cambridge colleges have instead opted to raise proceeds by encouraging donations via QR codes.

Some colleges have set up GoFundMe or JustGiving pages to help with donating – such as this one for King’s College – where you should also be able to find donation targets.

If you don’t have the time to attend Pink Week events – whether they’re main-week-related or college-specific – the college reps “wanted to create another way in which you can show your support.” After all, “anything you can give goes a long way,” because “100% of [the] money raised will go to our wonderful charities this year: Future Dreams, Coppafeel, Teenage Cancer Trust and Breast Cancer UK.”

Chances are your college has a representative who has organised an event that is distinct from the main week events – which number over a dozen (including a masquerade ball!) – but if you can’t find yours, rest easy.

Annabel “wanted to make it clear that those colleges that don’t have reps can still very much take part in Pink Week [2022]. And we really encourage that they do so – they’ll be able to participate in all our main events.”

But what if you wanted to attend an event at a friend’s college?

Well, that might be tricky, says Nancy. “The main goal for most of the colleges was to organise a formal, but, obviously, with all the Covid-19 stuff, a lot of colleges aren’t doing guests formals. I think that’s probably a safer bet to just attend the main week events, which there are a lot of anyway.”

That said, it does vary from college to college. For example, Annabel (who goes to King’s) noted that “[the formal at] my college has guest tickets, so it’s very much dependent on the college. Some colleges are so strict and some are a bit more lax.”

Why you should participate

Well, if for no other reason, the simple fact is that in 2022, “there are so many different events, and there’s something for everyone,” Nancy maintains. “Go to the events, donate money, buy the stash – just throw yourself in there, really.”

Plus, if you want to be even more involved, Nancy encourages you to “just find out who your rep is and message them – I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to have some extra hands.”

Speaking of stash: some college-specific events give attendees the opportunity to buy badges and other Pink-Week-related accessories. If you weren’t able to get official Pink Week stash, for which the form closed on 20th January, attending the events your college rep set up may just give you a second opportunity to do so.

Annabel also believes that “there’s just something so warm and comforting about Pink Week.”

Referring to a club night that the Pink Week team had in Michaelmas 2021, she continued, “I can’t tell you the amount of people that came up to me afterwards and said that they’ve never felt happier and safer in a club before. And I really think all our events are going to have that same energy to them, that same atmosphere – because it’s just a group of people coming together to celebrate something really special.”

Stay updated about Pink Week by following their Instagram or checking their website, and participate in this uni-wide celebration to support breast cancer charities in the UK! 

Feature image credits: Cambridge Pink Week via Facebook

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