This year’s Pink Ribbonwalk will be a bittersweet experience for mother and daughter Camilla and Clare Hanchet – coming just over a year after they lost their beloved friend Beverley Fenwick to cancer.

Mrs Hanchet, 56, and from Churchill, near Chipping Norton, said: “My friend Beverley died last year from breast cancer.

“We met 25 years ago when we were both pregnant and became close friends.

“Beverley lived in Surrey and bravely fought an aggressive cancer for nearly three years, undergoing several courses of chemo and a reconstruction.

“But in January last year she learned that the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs and she made the brave decision to discontinue treatment. She died in March last year, aged 55.”

The annual Pink Ribbonwalk sees walkers tackle either a 10 or 20-mile route through the picturesque Blenheim Palace grounds, raising sponsorship for Breast Cancer Care’s continuing support of breast cancer patients.

This year’s event takes place on Saturday, May 19.

Mrs Hanchet, who is a PA, added: “Beverley was a wonderful, vibrant person, who we all miss terribly. She completed the Moon Walk around six months before she died and I regret not taking part with her, so this walk is in some way to compensate for that.”

Mrs Hanchet’s daughter Clare, a teaching assistant from Headington, added: “We are walking for Beverley but we have lost countless friends and family to this dreadful disease and now we have the chance to raise money to help fight it.

“It would be amazing if we could raise between £300 and £500. We’re doing pretty well so far and everyone has been really enthusiastic about sponsoring us.”

Pink Ribbonwalk manager Lucy Thomson said:“By taking part in the Pink Ribbonwalk, people like Camilla and Clare are helping to support anyone affected by breast cancer as well as their friends and families.

“With your donation Breast Cancer Care can continue to provide free support services like our helpline or face to face sessions to ensure that no one faces a breast cancer diagnosis alone.

“Every year more than 50,000 people will hear those devastating words ‘you have breast cancer’ and we want to be there for every single one of them.”

Mrs Hanchet added: “Clare and I will be walking the 10-mile route and we are really looking forward to the general cameraderie of everyone raising money for the charity.”

Individuals and teams are welcome to join the Ribbonwalk. And everyone crossing the finish line is rewarded with a medal, a massage and a celebratory barbecue.

Plus, register at pinkribbonwalk.org.uk using the exclusive promotional code BLENHEIM8 and you will be entered into a prize draw to win an overnight stay for two with dinner and breakfast at the Macdonald Randolph Hotel, Oxford. This offer ends on 15 April 2012.

Registration costs £30 with a fundraising target of £175.

Go to breastcancercare.org.uk or telephone: 0870 145 0101