'It's so close to my heart': Sue's personal motivation for supporting Tickled Pink

Checkouts colleague Sue Alford is proud to be supporting our Tickled Pink charity appeal as it celebrates its 25th anniversary – joining in with fundraising events at our Longwell Green store including a sponsored walk and afternoon tea.

Tickled Pink raises money and awareness for Breast Cancer Now and CoppaFeel!, and 59-year-old Sue knows from her own experience how important the charities' messages of regularly checking yourself is, having been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in 2009 following a routine check.

Sue, who's been clear for 10 years, always gets behind the Tickled Pink fundraising in store.

She recently took part in a sponsored walk with the store's community champion Susan Grant, who herself has beaten breast cancer, did a 25-lap walk of the store's car park with colleagues and helped with an afternoon tea.

Sue, who's worked at the store for 15 years, said: "Tickled Pink is such a great charity and I aways get involved each year.

"It's so close to my heart. Breast cancer is something you will never forget and that's why it is so important that charities such as Tickled Pink continue to raise awareness as awareness."

Sue, who's married to Edward and has two sons, Lee, who's 39, and 36-year-old Nicholas, says it's vitally important that both and men check themselves regularly.

"If you do find anything unusual and something does not look right don't leave it, go to the doctor to get it checked out straight away," she said. "And try not to panic about it as it may not be cancer – it may just be a cyst.

"I found a lump on a regular check and went to see my doctor who transferred me to South Mead Hospital. I had a scan and biopsy and they conformed it was stage two cancer in one breast. It came as a big shock.

"I had a lumpectomy in the January and then because I had a vascular invasion, where they nicked the lump as they were getting it out causing some of the blood from the lump to transfer into my bloodstream, I had to have chemotherapy and then I had a course of radiation treatment too.

"During this time I had great support from Asda, my colleagues and my family as it was very overwhelming. My husband has been my rock; Without him I couldn't have got through it.

"A few of us at Longwell Green have had breast cancer over the years and we help each other out. If we have any problems we talk about it."

Tickled Pink has raised more than £71 million for charity since it started in 1996. Find out more about the ways it's made a difference in our blog post here.