Every year, during the month of October, Air Malta together with Sky Gourmet, assists the Breast Care Support Group Europa Donna Malta to help increase attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of breast cancer amongst the airline’s passengers. October is the breast cancer awareness month, marked in countries across the world.

During this month Air Malta’s cabin crew distribute pink ribbons and collect donations from passengers on selected flights to help this Maltese charity. €4,774 were last year collected from this campaign. Air Malta customer facing staff at check-in will also be wearing their pink ribbon throughout October.

The donations collected will go towards the printing of communication material to encourage women to choose healthy food and to practice some form of exercise – two important factors to lower the risk of having breast cancer.

Gertrude Abela on behalf of the Group thanked Air Malta and said that it is only through the generosity of the public and companies such as Air Malta that they can continue with helping and supporting the community.

The Breast Care Support Group Europa Donna Malta is a voluntary non profit making NGO and has been active since 1989. Its mission is to raise awareness and support patients and families passing through the trauma of breast cancer. Throughout the year the group works very hard to organise awareness campaigns and holds talks in schools and in different places of work. The group operates a 24 X 7 support line (which can be reached by dialling 9999 4666) which handles a large number of calls throughout the year and also offers a one to one counselling service. All services and materials are free of charge.

This campaign also forms part of Air Malta’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives whereby the airline supports organisations that work hard in the Maltese community.  No other airline operating to Malta provides continued support to voluntary and non-governmental organisations like Air Malta.