Pauline promotes fitness to help breast cancer charities
A former Big Brother contestant and artist is spearheading a series of fitness events to raise awareness of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Pauline Bennett, who appeared on series 15 of the show in 2014, has been putting on a series of free fitness classes at gyms across her home city of Wolverhampton and the surrounding area, with the first session on Wednesday, October 26 attracting a big crowd.
The 58-year-old has been combining providing the classes with promoting the use of bra banks, which allow people to donate bras to charities Against Breast Cancer (ABC) and Breast Cancer Now, which recycles the bras to help fund breast cancer research.
Pauline, also known as DJ Jazzi P, said members of her own family had been affected by breast cancer and she wanted to make a difference to help people.
She said: "My godmother is a survivor of breast cancer and was one of the driving forces behind getting black prosthetics for women as, when she first got given one, it was white and didn't quite match up.
"There have been other people I've known who have had breast cancer and it affects men as well, so I just wanted to do something to make a difference to help people.
"I noticed I had all these bras and I didn't know what I was going to do with them, so I got in touch with ABC and talked to them about collecting bras, then realised there was only one bra bin in the city, near Compton Hospice, so started to work on getting more out there."
Pauline said the sessions she was running were a way of getting people together to enjoy exercise, as well as encourage them to donate bras to the bins and wear pink and the wrong clothes as part of the sessions.
She also said she was delighted to be able to do the sessions in her home of Wolverhampton as she felt the community would be more receptive to helping with the donations.
She said: "We're a friendly bunch in this city and I think Wolverhampton is one of the best places in England, so it's been really heart-warming to see the pure positivity that I've gotten from this project.
"I'll keep doing things like this to help breast cancer charities and I hope people will give what they can."
The next session will take place on Sunday, October 30 at 12pm at Simply Gum on Bentley Mill Way in Walsall, with further sessions on Saturday, November 5 at JBS Martial Arts Academy in Telford and David Corfield Gym in Shifnal on Sunday, November 13.
For more details, go to twitter.com/pauline_jazzi?lang=en
