St Ives town bridge will be lit up in purple during the month of November as part of an awareness campaign about pancreatic cancer.

The bridge, one of the town’s most iconic landmarks, will be illuminated in purple to support Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Purple Lights for Hope campaign, as will other landmarks across the UK.

Alison Melnyczuk, town clerk of St Ives Town Council said: “We are delighted to be supporting Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Purple Lights for Hope campaign. We hope that by lighting up St Ives Town Bridge in purple we are going some way to help put a spotlight on pancreatic cancer and to highlight a disease that many people still know so very little about.”

According to figures from Pancreatic Cancer UK, around four per cent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive five years or more and this figure has barely improved in the last 40 years. It is the fifth most common cause of all cancer deaths in the UK and it is predicted that by 2030 pancreatic cancer will overtake breast cancer as the fourth most common cancer killer.

Alex Ford, chief executive of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: “Purple Lights for Hope presents a fantastic opportunity to raise crucial awareness of pancreatic cancer, which one person is diagnosed with in the UK every hour and has the lowest survival rate of all the 21 common cancers.

“On behalf of everyone at Pancreatic Cancer UK I would like to say a huge thank you to St Ives Town Council for helping us to spread our vital message of hope to people affected by the disease.”

INFO: www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk.