A TAVISTOCK woman who lost her brother to pancreatic cancer has raised more than £5,500 to help fight the disease and is continuing her fundraising campaign this month.

Jean Keast, who works for chartered insurance brokers T H March of Yelverton, is fully backing the charity Pancreatic Cancer Action campaign this month to raise consciousness in a fun way by encouraging people, places even landmarks all over the UK to ‘Turn It Purple’.

The levels of understanding of the killer disease and funding for treatment are very low. The current UK survival rate is only 7%.

Staff at T H March have joined in enthusiastically to raise funds and awareness led by their work colleague Jean who lost her brother Paul to the disease, only 18 weeks after diagnosis.

At the company’s National Service Centre, staff have dressed in purple, held raffles with purple prizes and even cooked and sold purple themed food and cakes.

Jean said: ‘I am very grateful to my work colleagues for their ongoing support. Since losing my much-loved brother Paul to this cruel disease I am passionate about helping others to learn, understand and support. Early detection gives patients a fighting chance and funding for more research is urgently needed.’

Since she began her fundraising Jean has raised £5774.72 with around another £200 raised this week by her T H March colleagues.

By the end of November Jean is hoping for around another £1,000 from all the shops and businesses supporting her purple butterfly campaign (part of a UK-wide ‘Display it Purple’ campaign ) in her home town of Tavistock and in December there will be more fundraising when Jean has a Christmas tree at an annual Christmas tree festival.

Her purple themed tree will be dedicated to the memory of those who lost their fight against Pancreatic Cancer.

To find out more about the work of the charity visit: www.pancreaticcanceraction.org, #turnitpurple @pancreatic_cancer_ action, www.thmarch.co.uk