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Pontllanfraith Inner Wheel is organising a charity shopping event in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The event will take place on Thursday October 19 between 5pm and 7pm at Bonmarche on Blackwood High Street.

Tickets cost £5 and will include refreshments. All funds raised will go to the new breast care centre in Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr.

Tickets for the event are available from Diane Lloyd, who can be contacted at 07971 684882.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is an annual international health campaign that takes place in October.

The campaign aims to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, and it is estimated that one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime

Ystrad Mynach’s new £11m ‘state-of-the-art’ breast cancer unit is set to open in 2024.

While the unit is being funded by the Welsh Government, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board set up a fundraising group – The Friends of the ABUHB Breast Unit – to raise £200,000 towards additional services for the unit.

According to ABUHB, breast care units within its area are the busiest in Wales, seeing more than 6,000 patients a year, with around 500 cancers being diagnosed annually.

Currently, breast services run from outpatient spaces at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport and Nevil Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.

The idea is to bring breast cancer services in Gwent under one roof with the creation of a ‘centre of excellence’ in Ystrad Mynach.

Plans for the breast centre were first approved by the health board in 2016, with an outline business case to support its construction back in 2020.