Nikki Barraclough, chief executive of Prevent Breast Cancer, the only UK charity focused entirely on the prediction and prevention of breast cancer details a week in her life.

Monday
My Monday mornings usually start in the same way; a top-line weekly activity meeting with my senior team where we outline the week’s major events and make sure everything is aligned to make them happen. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month so the full team has a jam-packed diary, as this is an important month for us in terms of raising awareness and attracting donations.

This week starts slightly differently to normal, however, because we’re gearing up for a major announcement on Wednesday, so it’s straight into an update with our key stakeholders. We’ll be welcoming Sarah, Duchess of York, on board as our newest patron and taking her on a tour of our headquarters, with a busy press cohort in tow. We’re located in a clinical setting – the Nightingale Centre in Manchester, which is one of the largest purpose-built breast centres in Europe. This means that the Duchess can come and meet us, and also see first-hand how the research we fund saves lives.

The Duchess will be launching a major capital fundraising campaign for us, too, so I spend the afternoon with my marketing, PR and fundraising teams making sure that everything is in place ready for the announcement on Wednesday morning.

Tuesday
This morning I have a meeting with some of our researchers. Last week, we held our first annual scientific conference sharing the latest research into the predication and prevention of breast cancer with over 150 global delegates. Today, we’re sitting down for a debrief – what worked, what we can improve on next year, and our immediate next steps. There’s no time to rest on our laurels for next year, and we agree to start preparations for 2025 straight away, starting with venue hunting.

Afterwards, I make time to catch up with our PR lead to go over the final plans for tomorrow’s visit. We have media from seven separate outlets attending, and it’s a busy working breast clinic so we need to be absolutely sure that everything goes to plan and patient care isn’t interrupted.

Then it’s into Manchester for dinner with the Duchess and her team, and two of our other patrons, Sally Dynevor and Sue Cleaver, both Coronation Street stars and Loose Women regulars. Sally and Sue are both incredible assets to the charity and so passionate about our work – Sally has often spoken about her own experience of breast cancer aged just 42, while Sue is committed to using her profile to raising awareness on the importance of breast screening.

It’s thanks to Sally that we have cultivated a relationship with the Duchess, and I’m so thrilled to have both her and Sue with us tonight.

Wednesday
Today kicks off with a very early start as I head into Manchester city centre to meet the Duchess and her team, and escort them to the centre. The news is out thanks to a feature in The Sun this morning, and I hear the story covered on the region’s breakfast radio bulletins.

The tour goes without a hitch, and I’m thrilled that we have shown the Duchess so many of the incredible things that happen in the centre. She met with a number of our staff, researchers, ambassadors and our incredible volunteers who are the lifeblood of our presence in the centre. The Duchess herself made a great impression on them all and I’ve been taken aback by the sheer volume of wonderful comments we have had about her patronage. Inviting media into the centre is always tricky to navigate due to it hosting active patient clinics, but this has been an ideal example of how well everything can go with the right planning.

I do a couple of TV interviews with our regional broadcasters. These pieces of TV are so valuable to the charity as they’ve proven time and again to make the biggest impact on our donations. Most of our long-term supporters are here in the north west, so we make sure to keep an active profile regionally as well as nationally. They’ll be shown on the early evening bulletins, so I make a note to watch (and to text my mum!).

Thursday
Still riding high on yesterday’s visit, I wake to a blanket of media coverage. We’re a small charity compared to some others in the breast cancer space, and while we’re small yet mighty, getting this level of media attention is still something to shout about!

The capital appeal we launched yesterday has already seen a steady stream of donations over and above the usual level. We’re asking for £600,000 to close the funding gap on a National Breast Imaging Academy. This new building will house a training scheme aimed at training 50 additional breast imaging specialists a year to go on and work all around the country. It will also increase breast screening capacity locally by 13,000 women a year, meaning it helps to solve both a national workforce problem and a local capacity issue.

We’ve already fundraised for about 80% of the cost of the building, much of it through trust pledges, and today I speak with my contacts to discuss a timescale for drawing down on the funds. Work will start on site next month, so it’s time to get the funds in place.

Other funds have come from our many corporate fundraising partnerships, and I have a lunch meeting with a corporate supporter to discuss ongoing opportunities to develop our partnership further.

I round off the day with a call with a business that makes mammography equipment, and which wants to explore ways we can partner for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Friday
The morning is taken up with strategy meetings, first with the senior leadership team as we review the plans to the end of the year, and second with the auditors to cover the final amends on the annual report and draft accounts before they go to the designer.

After lunch I catch up with our health inequalities officer and trust fundraiser to discuss their progress, and I also speak with some of our researchers about their health inequalities work. This is a key area for us, and I make a point of making it a high priority.

And, because there’s no rest for the wicked, I make the final preparations for a major event this weekend – a huge bingo being organised by one of our most committed supporters, taking place at the Concord hangar at Manchester Airport. There’s just time at the end of the day to take a moment with my team and reflect on one of our busiest weeks in recent memory, and raise a cup of tea to a job well done!

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