Some years ago Matt Witson and Gary Sinclair began wearing pink shirts to work on Fridays in solidarity with their wives respective battles with breast cancer.
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On Friday the beer garden at The Tamworth Hotel was a sea of pink shirts as the Tradies Support The Ladies held their official launch party a few months after making “Pink Fridays” official.
The campaign is not a charity, they have never asked and do not want any money, all they want is awareness, and in particular for partners to be aware that they too have an important role to play in the early detection of breast cancer.
“All we want is for people to have the conversation with their partner, it’s free and it is worth gold because it just might make all the difference,” Mr Sinclair said.
“Every month check your partners breasts for any changes – just ask permission first.”
The campaign has already seen the sale of over 150 pink work shirts of all varieties from Hip Pocket Workwear, who are also processing a constant backlog of orders as the movement spreads Australia wide.
Hip pocket do all the monogramming for free, and also donate 10 per cent of all sales to the Cancer Council, handing over a cheque for $700 on Friday night, while several other corporate sponsors are also getting on board.
Orcon Steel and have recently agreed to have their entire NSW workforce in TSTL pink every Friday, while Gasweld’s Sydney staff are also “pinked up”.
The Tradies Support the Ladies adventure:
At the launch party Mr Sinclair and Mr Witson laid out the foundations for what they hope to achieve in 2018, while the local McGrath Nurse, Neridah Prentice, and local member Kevin Anderson spoke to the crowd about what has already been achieved and what more can be done.
Mr Anderson even pledged to “pink up” in parliament on a Friday.
“We have been blown away – it is really starting to grow legs of its own and stretch across the state – it has really gone gangbusters,” Mr Sinclair said.
The two tradies are now looking at incorporating more clothing items into the campaign, with discussions ongoing with “some very major brands” for socks and other workwear, while there is also talk about another statewide launch party being held in Sydney in “about six months time.”
“It’s unbelievable,” Mr Sinclair said.
“We were just two tradies who can’t spell properly who had a half hacked Facebook page. But we were surrounded with good people, people like the Savvy Birds, Luke Prout at The Tamworth, Liney Manning and a few others.”
“They know how to do these things and have pointed us in the right direction to get our profile out there and to keep raising awareness.
“We are really sitting back and enjoying the ride now, hoping that it can make a difference to someone’s life.”