The Pink Ribbon Foundation is a grant making trust with a mission to fund projects and provide financial support to UK charities which relieve the needs of people who are suffering from, have been affected by breast cancer, or who work to advance the understanding of breast cancer and its early detection and treatment.

There are a large number of such charities in the UK, each as deserving as the next. Many of the charities supported are the smaller ones, which operate on a shoestring.

The Pink Ribbon Foundation has very little infrastructure.  It relies on the hard work given by Trustees, interested parties and its Patrons. This is done in order to maximise the amount, which goes to the charities that benefit from the funds raised.

Preloved Reloved - Cancer & Beyond is a registered charitable organisation (1208222) that collects, recycles and sends out donations of essential items that can be passed onto anyone going through a cancer diagnosis.  Spreading joy to those who need it most.  

Its mantra 'Together we're turning second hand into second chances' is a perfect description of the collaborative work we do together as Preloved Reloved takes both new and nearly new PICC line covers made by us and redistributes them to those in need.  

By working with this fabulous charity we are reducing our carbon footprints and preventing unused or nearly new sleeves from entering landfill - it's a fabulous partnership.

Agora is an international Ladies Service Club, which is part of the Round Table umbrella. Agora 4 Great Wakering is a local group of ladies who have different professions, hobbies and interests.  The ladies meet socially and participate in local charity work.  

Club 4 have chosen to support PICCPals and Fintees as their charities and organise fund raising events that double up as social occasions to spread the word about the work that each charity is undertaking, as well as raising money for such worthwhile causes. 

As an independent charitable foundation funded by Asda, The Asda Foundation supports the small grassroots groups at the heart of their communities.  Their aim is to empower local groups with the funding they need, exactly where they need it. They work closely with the in-store Asda Community Champions to understand the needs of the people living and working locally in the communities surrounding Asda stores and fund vital community projects.  

Lorraine, the store Community Champion at Shoeburyness Asda deemed PICCPals worthy of support and in October 2024 we received a generous donation from the foundation to continue to fund resources for our work. 

CATS in SPACE are staunch supporters of PICCPals and have recently promoted us on both their Kickstart The Sun 2023 Tour, and Time Machine 2024 Tour raising over £2000 for our funds by selling tickets to win Sparkle Pod I and Sparkle Pod 2.

With a high-class pedigree of players, they have worked with the likes of T’Pau, The Sweet, Ian Gillan, Mike Oldfield, Asia, Robin Trower and Jeff Wayne and always ensure a performance of the highest calibre.  

As a band they have toured with legendary rock giants Deep Purple, Status Quo & Thunder, playing UK arenas, as well as Hyde Park with Phil Collins and Blondie, The Hammersmith Odeon and The London O2 Arena.  They have a truly unique sound that will transport you back to the days of 70s Classic Rock when bands like Queen, Boston, Styx, ELO and Journey ruled the airwaves. Think loud guitars and huge drums, walls of soaring multi-layered vocal harmonies, grandiose pianos, and unforgettable singable choruses. It’s purr-fect!

The band lineup includes Steevi Bacon on drums who is based in Southend on Sea and is one of our proud volunteers.

FSJ incorporates three Trusts established at different times by the Fowler Family, Albert & Florence Smith and Edward Cecil Jones. They were all very much ‘Essex people’ and lived in the South-East of the county. The Trust now makes awards throughout the county. The great majority of funding is applied to projects and groups within Essex: either directly or through national charities for specific Essex-based projects. Each application is considered by the Trustees collectively, and if approved, an appropriate donation is determined.

The Trust distributes, on average, £400-500,000 annually to between 120-150 organisations principally for projects within the county. As with many funds, the recent economic climate has reduced the value of the fund, but judicious investment has enabled the Trust to maintain its income.

We were fortunate enough to apply for and be awarded a grant to work with schools in the area to make our sleeves with groups of students as well as profidiving funding for relevant training for our volunteers.  

PierPatchers are a friendly group of over 40 like-minded members who are interested in Patchwork and Quilting.  They meet every two months on the third Wednesday in the months of January, March, May, July, September and November.  They also have a 'show and tell' social session in January and have visiting speakers, workshops and social sewing days throughout they year.

Pier Patchers were kind enough to invite us along to some of their sessions to meet the members, explain what we do and demonstrate how sleeves are made.  Many of their members now undertake home sewing of PICCline sleeve covers and we are very pleased to have them on board - their stitching and attention to detail is very important to our cause.

If you would like to know more about where they meet and what they do please contact Vicki via pierpatchers@hotmail.com

Red Hot Stitchers are a non-profit making group of very friendly sewers, who use donated fabric that would have gone to landfill, and often give their creations away freely, to friends, family and charities. Their mission is to provide an accessible to all, friendly community sewing group, where people can get together and create beautiful things. They made their first reusable tote (or boomerang) bag from some old curtains on a kitchen table and they soon realised that by  giving away their bags freely they were starting up conversations about recycling and reducing single use plastic, they joined the Boomerang family and their little sewing group was hatched.  They love sewing so much that they wanted to encourage more people to enjoy this rewarding hobby, so they now hold regular sewing socials to spread the wonderful word of sewing - they open their doors a couple of times a month to sew. 

Many of our volunteers are also members of the Red Hot Stitchers community and the group supports PICCPals through hosting one off sewing sessions in their local meeting place. 

Supporting, Promoting and Representing Southend's VCFSE Sector.  They are Southend’s Council for Voluntary Services

SAVS is an independent charity known as a Council for Voluntary Services, or CVS. They work behind the scenes to help local charities and community groups achieve their full potential. They do this, for free, for anyone in the Voluntary, Community, Faith or Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector.

Shoebury Youth and Community centre is situated in Delaware Road in Shoeburyness, Essex.  The team at the youth centre have opened their doors to our team and there is a small group of volunteers, led by Chris Hewitt, who now meet regularly on designated Tuesdays of each month.  

We have sewing machines and overlockers plus fabric resources on site for sewists to work together and make sleeves.  There is also the opportunity for home sewists to drop off completed sleeves or pick up more fabric to sew at home. 

For more details of how you can get involved and dates for these meetings please contact us via info@piccpals.co.uk.

Vygon are a Swindon based carbon neutral supplier of medical and surgical devices dedicated to helping clinicians deliver the best possible outcomes for their patients. They have gifted 500 tape measures to PICCPals which are designed specifically to ensure precise measurement, ensuring that the sleeves fit properly.  This generous donation will ensure that patients’ arms can be measured with greater precision, ensuring they are fitted with the correct size sleeve. This is essential for both safety and comfort. 

Waitrose 'Community Matters' supports thousands of local groups across the UK and allows for Waitrose to give something back to local communities whilst helping to make a difference to local people.  

Community Matters has donated over £50 million to good causes to date.  By supporting PICCPals, Community Matters is helping us, as a local group, to build a space and come together.  This in turn supports our ethos of tackling social isolation and fostering connection. 

Zöe Zig Zag is a professional zigzagger and loves all things stitchy...  Having left the busy world of state education in 2018 she can now be found teaching groups of enthusiastic sewists at Kayes Textiles, running her alteration business 'Zöe Saves The Day' supporting 'Form' a local business that makes ballroom and latin dresses, or running our volunteer workshops at PICCPals.  

Zöe has sewn since she was a youngster and having spent many years making bridal gowns and formal wear she now makes mainly for herself, specialising in making dungarees, anything out of denim or anything black - she may give in to working with grey fabrics aka summer black.

Find out more about her work on her ZöeZigZag Instagram account.