On Thursday 19 October, spend your lunchbreak with us in Brett Whiteley Place to witness its Pink Up! We’re supporting the McGrath Foundation campaign to ensure everyone who goes through treatment for breast cancer can have access to a McGrath Breast Care Nurse. There will be pink chairs, sweet treats and musical entertainment from 12pm to 2pm.

There are currently 200 McGrath Breast Care Nurses in communities across Australia and they’ve supported more than 123,000 families since 2005. The McGrath Foundation hopes to increase this number to 250 by 2025 which will ensure that no one misses out on this crucial care. Breast Care Nurses offer medical expertise, clinical care and psychosocial support from the time of diagnosis and throughout treatment. They are a trusted, consistent and knowledgeable support for families.

Research from the McGrath Foundation shows that access to a specialist nurse within a week of a breast cancer diagnosis significantly improves the experience and outcomes.

Accessing a Breast Care Nurse is free. In North Sydney, there are nurses currently in Mater North Sydney, Royal North Shore and Genesis Care St Leonards. It costs around $140,000 a year to fund a full-time McGrath Breast Care Nurse (including training and development) which is why more funding is needed.

One in seven women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and numbers are on the rise. This year alone, 20,428 women and 212 men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer across the country.

In 2022, Council partnered with the McGrath Foundation to host a mural on Miller Street outside Stanton Library to mark International Nurses Day (pictured). Painted by artist Sarah McCloskey, the mural depicts Breast Care Nurse Joylene Fletcher and her 26-year-old patient Emily Quinlan, and highlights the importance of the service, as well as the aim to have 250 nurses by 2025.