By the end of Cancer Month in October, tyre manufacturer Bridgestone South Africa (BSAF) had successfully raised R500 000 through its #PinkValveCaps Project over the course of the year. BSAF handed over the cheque to PinkDrive, a public benefit organisation dedicated to fighting breast cancer, at its head office in Midrand on 19 November 2020.
The project is a nationwide cancer initiative aimed at raising funds to educate South Africans about cancer through Bridgestone’s national network. To raise funds, the #PinkValveCaps were sold at R50 (per set of four) through Supa Quick fitment centres, which form part Bridgestone’s franchise network. “This initiative is especially close to our hearts, as it reflects our value of Serving Society with Superior Quality,” says Bridgestone Senior Communications Manager, Vuyokazi Xapa. “In the same way that our products create safer roads, increased breast cancer awareness and early detection help to preserve the health and welfare of millions of South Africans.”
Within the first year of partnering with PinkDrive in 2013, BSAF was able to donate towards the organisation’s first mobile mammography unit, which would offer free screening services. A complete mammographic radiographic system, including an x-ray generator, an x-ray tube and framework, and a recording medium is housed in the Pink Drive Screening Truck, with a trained medical team to accurately process and record results. To date, the #PinkValveCaps project has contributed to the acquisition of more mammography unit units, which travel to urban and semi-urban areas to ensure that medically uninsured people have access to cancer screening services.
These services include free education on women’s health, free mammograms, pap smears, clinical examinations, and information on how to do breast self-examinations. Additionally, BSAF assists in maintaining the PinkDrive mobile units with regular tyre donations when needed – these are used on the vehicles as they travel to remote areas. “These contributions will go a long way in assisting PinkDrive to increase early detection through a variety of screening services, such as mammograms, pap smears and clinical examinations,” says PinkDrive founder and CEO, Nolene Kotshan. “The premium Bridgestone tyres, which experience much lower failure rates than other tyres on the market, ensure more reliable delivery of these vital health services to people who would otherwise not be able to receive them.
