Warwick girls step out to beat breast cancer

12 July 2006

Two intrepid ladies from Warwick-based National Grid Wireless are stepping out onto the streets of Birmingham to help fight breast cancer. Anna Wakeman and Lisa Prince will take part in a 60-kilometre walk in September to raise money for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

And thanks to its matched charity funding scheme, Warwick company National Grid Wireless will be adding significantly to the amount raised by the girls - donating an extra £1 for every one raised by the duo up to a limit of £400.

2006 is the first year that Birmingham will stage the famous Breakthrough Breast Cancer event, which is expected to attract thousands of participants all aiming to raise funds and awareness of the disease. The city will be taken over for the weekend by a sea of white t-shirts and pink tents as the ladies from National Grid Wireless along with their fellow fund-raisers spend the night under canvas in one of the city's parks.

Both of the ladies have been in training for the last two months. Anna Wakeman said: "Walking such a distance is no mean feat and requires us all to get up to a reasonable level of fitness before the weekend. The event sponsors, Aviva, are very good at providing guidance and training tips, which includes buying a good pair of trainers that don't give me blisters!

"While we are really looking forward to the weekend, which will be great fun, I am not looking forward to the 6:00am starts that are required to ensure we get through every gruelling kilometre by the end of the weekend!"

Breakthrough Breast Cancer is a charity committed to fighting breast cancer through research and awareness and relies heavily on its supporters to fund its work. Last year Breakthrough Breast Cancer raised a total of £15 million, the majority of which was raised from the charity's events and campaigns*.

Anna and Lisa have had continual support from the team at National Grid Wireless but are keen to drum up as much support as possible for the walk. Supporters of the cause are welcome to make donations by visiting the girls' individual web pages below.

Lisa's site:
http://bi06.breakthroughweekend.org/site/TR?px=1447700&pg=personal&fr_id=1030

Anna's site:
http://bi06.breakthroughweekend.org/site/TR?px=1439383&pg=personal&fr_id=1030

*www.breakthrough.org.uk

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Notes to Editors:

A photo is available on request

About National Grid Wireless

National Grid Wireless is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Grid and is the leading independent provider of infrastructure to the mobile telecommunications operators in the UK.

National Grid Wireless is also one of two UK providers of terrestrial infrastructure for the transmission of analogue and digital television and radio broadcasts in the UK and as such achieves a 98% population coverage. In addition to the traditional analogue services, National Grid Wireless has a strong position in the growing digital television market, owning two of the six digital terrestrial television licences and providing infrastructure services to all the Freeview channels and the BBC and BSkyB.

For further information:

Stephen Arnold
National Grid Wireless
+44 (0) 1926 416 870
+44 (0) 7803 887 288 (m)