In the run up to Sussex Pink Week, The Badger Features Editor Tallulah Belassie-Page caught up with Ana Schiller to talk about the group’s plans for the week, and how people can get involved.

Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about Sussex Pink Week and what you guys are doing?

Sussex Pink Week is a week of events in Brighton raising money and awareness for breast cancer charities and will commence on the 27th of April and finish on the 3rd of May. This week was inspired by the activism of the late Dina Rabinovitch. We have some incredible events lined up this year thanks to the help of the Student Union, Pop Up Brighton and local places in Brighton. You can expect similar events to last year’s Pink Week like life drawing, yoga and Glitter Nips, which will be at patterns this year. We have an amazing new t-shirt design and some really great raffle prizes for this year too.

How did you choose the two charities you would be fundraising for?

We really wanted to ensure that we covered all the grounds with the charities we chose which is why we decided on a research-based charity (Breast Cancer Now) and a charity promoting awareness (Coppafeel). These are the same charities that Sussex Pink Week raised money for last year. As they’re both incredible charities and great to work with, we decided these would be the two that we’ll be fundraising for again.

Why did you want to get involved with Sussex Pink Week?

We saw how incredible Sussex Pink Week was last year and how much of a success it was. We all wanted to help an incredible cause and try to make as much of a difference as possible. Not only is it important to raise money for Breast Cancer research but it is equally as important to raise awareness for it as everyone can be affected by Breast Cancer. Pink Week does exactly that so we all wanted to contribute whatever we could.

Can people volunteer with SPW?

Of course! Volunteering is encouraged and much appreciated! The signup sheets went live on our Facebook page on the 11th of April so we would love anyone that wants to get involved to just pop their name and email down for us to be able to contact them. There are lots of different events people can volunteer at and we can guarantee that it will be incredibly fun and fulfilling! There can never be enough volunteers.

https://www.volunteersignup.org/JX47H?fbclid=IwAR0Qx-af9h_1sU_3WP2nJYu8g2YW8W7eU3IWneybhG_O_lBdq-oBARX6n-U

Your main event, Glitter Nips, features an array of art installations and workshops. How has it been organising this?

It has been a lot of work, but it’s also been incredibly fun watching it all come together! Communication for this (and the week in general) has been the key! We had weekly meetings for about 5 months to make sure we were on top of everything. We all had really good ideas for Glitter Nips this year whether it was the music, venue or decorations. Luckily, we also had Ashleigh from Pop Up Brighton again who came up with Glitter Nips as a concept for Pink Week a few years ago. He has been an incredible help curating the art side of Glitter Nips as he has a lot of connections in Brighton as well as with the people who got involved with the event in previous years. Organising the venue was probably the biggest stress because there were a lot of things one needed to consider but now that it is taking place at Patterns we hope it will be a huge success again!

Where have you found your talent? Are you taking submissions?

Unfortunately the submissions have now closed but Pop Up Brighton had a link on their page where people could fill out a form and describe what kind of talent they wanted to submit whether it’s a piece of art, a performance or a workshop. We’ve had a lot of submissions this year, which has been great, and hopefully people will enjoy their experience at Glitter nips.

What more is in store for SPW this year?

As Pink Week is close to deadlines, we wanted to have a range of different events at different times so that people who are busy can attend at least one event. We have two yoga sessions this year as it was a huge success last year and may be a nice de-stress for students. We have included some free events for people to attend (with a suggested donation) such as the Singing Workshop run by Show Choir’s musical director. We have also collaborated with lots of other societies this year to put on a Booby Cabaret on campus on Thursday 2nd of May. Hopefully with all of these events, as well as the stalls/raffles/t-shirts and cake sales we can promote as much awareness as possible as well as reaching our target for fundraising.

Sussex Pink Week will be running from the 29th of April to the 4th of May, and is open to anyone to attend. For any donations, or more information on their events, join their Facebook page and get involved!

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