Paul Mount with members of the On Q Promotions team of professional Snooker players in their pink waistcoats at the Six Reds World Championships in Killarney, Ireland.
Jimmy White is one of a number of professional snooker players who are getting together in an attempt to raise awareness of breast cancer through a new snooker tournament called the “Pink Ribbon”.
Jimmy will be joined by fellow professionals Stephen Lee, Barry Hawkins, Gerard Greene, Robert Milkins, Andrew Norman and many more in competing in the Pink Ribbon finals at the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester…
The Pink Ribbon tournament is open to club players, amateurs and professionals, of any age or ability, with qualifying rounds being held in clubs nationwide. Regional finals will then be held to determine which club players will get to take part in the finals weekend playing alongside professionals and high ranking amateurs. All of the money raised from entries to the tournament, after deductions for the prize fund, will be donated to breast cancer charities and the eventual winner will receive a glass trophy in the shape of a pink ribbon.
The tournament is being organised by On Q Promotions and was devised by managing director Paul Mount who himself lost his sister to breast cancer when she was only 39 years old. Paul manages several snooker players and in memory of Paul’s sister, and in an attempt to raise awareness amongst men and women of the importance of checking yourself for the warning signs, all of the players managed by Paul have agreed to wear pink backed waistcoats and pink bow ties. Robert Milkins was the first to show his support by wearing his waistcoat and spreading the message at the Grand Prix in Glasgow in October 2009. Since then Stephen Lee donned the waistcoat in the UK Championships in Telford and Barry Hawkins wore his at the Welsh Open in Newport.
On Q Promotions, and everyone associated with the company, are keen to promote awareness of breast cancer amongst men asking them to ensure that the women in their lives regularly look for the warning signs of breast cancer. Another aim is to make men aware of the dangers they also face from the UK’s most common cancer as over 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. “The idea of wearing pink in such a public way is to, in general, raise awareness of breast cancer and also to encourage the question from men, to the players, of why we wear pink” said Paul Mount. He continued “The question will be answered in two ways. Firstly we will explain that we are aiming to increase breast cancer awareness amongst men and secondly we will ask them to ask their Wives, mothers, Daughters and girlfriends if they have checked themselves. In effect it is a simple way of men showing their caring side to the women in their life in a hope that a number of women, who may otherwise remain unaware of the disease, will check themselves and maybe detect Cancer early which improves the likelihood of a positive outcome”
The finals of the Pink Ribbon tournament will take place at the new South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester in the summer of 2010. It will be the first major event to be held at the new 20,000 square foot centre of excellence which will provide high quality practice, coaching and development facilities to encourage new players, support existing players and promote snooker at the highest level.
If you would like any more information about the Pink Ribbon tournament please contact tournament director Roland van Laere on 07791550741 or by email at:
- rolandVL@shallvanlaere.orangehome.co.uk.
If you would like any information about On Q Promotions or any of the players mentioned in this press release, please contact Sarah Mount on:
- 07900900385
- sarah.mount@onqpromotions.co.uk