Reach for Recovery, a South African non-profit organisation is at it again with their annual Power of Pink campaign, a South African Mushroom Farmers’ Association (SAMFA) initiative and everyone is loving the pink punnets on Pick ‘n Pay’s shelves.

If you walk into any Pick ‘n Pay during the month of October, you’ll spot pink punnets of fresh mushrooms at the veggie section. R1 from each punnet sold nationally will be donated to the Reach for Recovery Ditto Project – a project with the objective of providing free silicone prostheses to breast cancer survivors who cannot afford reconstruction after the life altering and heartbreaking reality of a mastectomy.

The chairperson of Reach for Recovery, Stephné Jacobs says that to their astonishment, 2020 saw the highest amount raised since the campaign’s inception in 2011. Despite their own financial hardships due to Covid-19, South Africans contributed just under R700 000.

Jacobs – a breast cancer survivor herself – says that it is through the South African concept of Ubuntu that the leaders from the South African Mushroom Farmers Association came together with diverse resources to form a solution for uninsured women. This solution ensures silicone prostheses service for uninsured women who had survived breast cancer, empowering survivors to regain their self-esteem, dignity and confidence after a mastectomy.

READ: Mushrooms pose as a self-care step to prevent breast cancer

Silicone breasts cost over R 3000 in the open market, but with the Ditto Project all you would have to do to get a prostheses is to be a state hospital patient. Since 2011, they have been able to give 6523 silicone prostheses to women in different provinces across South Africa – women who could not afford it.

Ross Richardson, SAMFA’s chairperson says: “We couldn’t be prouder of our association with Reach for Recovery’s Ditto Project. The dedication of every R4R volunteer – a breast cancer survivor herself – and the immense kindness of all South Africans who support the campaign is such a restorative testimony to the goodness that lives in people.”

Isn’t it amazing what a pink punnet of mushrooms can do?