IF YOU happened to be patronising the inns of Kendal on Friday, you no doubt will have noticed a rather merry group of women dressed head-to-toe in pink.

A new fashion craze has not hit the town however and, despite the cheery atmosphere and flow of alcohol, the group were out in force on a more sobering matter - to raise both awareness and money for breast cancer. As well as 300 men being diagnosed annually, 41,000 new cases of breast cancer are detected each year. With one in nine women facing these frightening odds, awareness of the issue is vital.

Organiser Jackie Wilson, whose close friend suffers from the illness, was joined by 55 women on the pub crawl, which aimed to raise, through sponsorship and generous donations from the 20-or-so pubs en-route, in excess of £3,000 for Breast Cancer Care's Lavender Trust.

"We chose a pub crawl instead of the usual coffee morning or raffle because it's a bit of fun and basically, this is us." said Mrs Wilson, who praised the generosity of the public.

"We decided to wear pink as it represents the charity and also to unite us as we all have a link to cancer in some way," she said.

"It's nice to use that fact in a positive way and bring everyone together, in a fun situation, for the cause.

"The turn out was amazing and people have been absolutely brilliant, from kids donating pocket money to local businesses helping out."

After beginning the crawl' at 3.30pm, and with the women aiming to spend around 15 minutes in each pub, the half-way-point meal - provided by the town's Fleece Inn - was gratefully received.

Breast Cancer Care is a national organisation offering free information and support to those affected by breast cancer. Call 0808-800-6000 for further information.