BRIGHTON and Hove Albion players joined the club’s official charity at the Brighton Open Market to help raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of breast cancer.

Fliss Gibbons and Kate Natkiel, who both play for Brighton & Hove Albion’s FA Women’s Super League 2 squad, joined Albion in the Community for the event which saw the charity offer shoppers a guided tour through a giant inflatable breast.

The inflatable is used by AITC’s Speak Up Against Cancer team to engage people in its awareness work and features interactive displays that highlight breast cancer symptoms and early warning signs.

More than 600 people visited the inflatable during its recent visit to the Brighton Open Market, with the Speak Up Against Cancer team distributing some potentially life-saving messages.

Nationally one in eight women will develop breast cancer during their life – that is around 50,000 people each year or 130 women every day.

In Brighton and Hove more than 200 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year – making campaigns like AITC’s Speak Up Against Cancer, which is commissioned by NHS Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group and local Public Health, increasingly-important.

Sue Brown, AITC’s cancer prevention co-ordinator, was delighted with how the day went.

She said: “The event was a really good opportunity to engage people in our work – particularly as October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“If detected early, more than 90 per cent of breast cancers can be successfully treated, so it is vital that people learn what to look out for.

“I’d like to thank Fliss and Kate and our Speak Up Against Cancer volunteers for giving up their time to help.”

For more information on Speak Up Against Cancer and the early signs and symptoms of a range of cancers, visit: www.speakupagainstcancer.org.

Visitors to the Speak Up website can also enter a free prize draw to win a signed Albion shirt.