Congratulations to Jim Viggars, Head of Meat Quality and Buying Manager at Asda, who has been awarded Breast Cancer Campaign’s “Employee Fundraiser of the Year” after raising £5 million for breast cancer charities.

He was presented with the award at Breast Cancer Campaign’s annual reception at the House of Lords – which is held to recognise and say thank you for the amazing achievements of its supporters.

Jim has worked at Asda for 28 years and has been dedicated to fundraising for our Tickled Pink campaign. In the past five years, Jim has raised money by taking part in a variety of fundraising challenges and getting colleagues involved. These efforts include leading a team of twenty ‘butchers on bikes’ on a two day cycle ride from Smithfield meat market in London to Rungis market in Paris – raising £67,000! He also broke a Guinness World Record in 2010 for kayaking across Loch Ness in just five hours and 19 minutes.

After 16 years of fundraising, today we can announce we’ve raised a massive £30 million to help fight cancer through our Tickled Pink campaign.

We’d like to say a massive thank you and well done to all our customers and colleagues who have helped us to raise this fantastic amount for Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care since Tickled Pink started in 1996. Your support has helped to raise awareness and money for the treatment of breast cancer in the UK.

Zoe Hardman, TV presenter and Tickled Pink Ambassador, explains how the money raised by Tickled Pink has helped the two charities.

We’re working hard to help fight cancer every day, so were delighted to attend a recent reception at Number 10 Downing Street to launch Breast Cancer Campaign’s latest pioneering project.

The event, hosted by Samantha Cameron, brought together celebrities, politicians and scientific researchers to celebrate the launch of Gap Analysis 2013, a new research project which aims to transform the diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for women with breast cancer in the UK.

Among the delegates were breast cancer experts, women living with the disease and high profile supporters who’ve been touched by breast cancer – including presenter Kirstie Allsopp, singers Beverley Knight and Linda Nolan and comedians Olivia Lee and Morwenna Banks. Leading health policy makers and politicians also attended, including Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP and Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham MP.