Crooner Puts Shoppers In The Pink

Shoppers visiting a Wrexham store were soon in the pink thanks to the self-proclaimed King of Swing. As part of a Breakthrough Breast Cancer fund-raising campaign, M&S staff in Wrexham welcomed professional vocalist Alan Burton into the store to serenade shoppers.

Store Manager Carole Davies says Alan, who performed at the entrance to the store, helped raise a mountain of cash thanks to generous customers donating loose change into special pink buckets.

She said: “Alan was perfect and sang just the right sort of songs. As ever, our customers were really, really generous and, as a result, the two day event significantly boosted our fund-raising for the month-long Breakthrough Breast Cancer Campaign.

“As a store we have a number of events taking place all aimed at raising a significant amount of money for the charity. I think Alan was particularly well received and our customers and staff really enjoyed his music.”

Vocalist Alan Burton, of Wilmslow, Cheshire agreed to spend two days singing for cash donations at the M&S store through the charity Sing For Life.

He said “Basically, I spend a few days each month singing for charity at various locations. It’s not always for Breakthrough Breast Cancer but I have to say this is one of my favourite charities.”

Alan performed songs by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and even Michael Bublé over the two days he performed at Eagles Meadow.

Section Co-ordinator Wai Lam said “It’s not the sort of music I normally listen to but it has been good. It’s quite nice having someone sing mellow songs while you work and the event has gone down really well with our customers too.”

Customer Assistant Karen Large said “Many of the customers I have spoken to have really enjoyed listening to Alan perform. His songs have been perfectly suited to the store and our customers have been really generous. Like many of my colleagues I’m thrilled we are raising funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and I hope we raise a huge amount of money over the month-long campaign.”

Meanwhile, the nearby Debenhams department store is donating 50p from the sale of every bra in October. Breast Cancer Awareness Month has attracted the support of celebrities like Tess Daley, Donna Air, Sadie Frost and Lauren Goodger. The campaign is also being backed by Eagles Meadow manager Kevin Critchley who is hoping other stores will join in.

Kevin said “What we are trying to do is turn Eagles Meadow into Pink Meadow because that will hopefully make the whole population of Wrexham aware. It’s a very important campaign. Cancer is an illness that many people will recover from with the right treatment.

“Nowadays, with early enough diagnosis, people can be 100 per cent cured with treatment or surgery – or a combination of both. There are a huge number of women who work and shop at Eagles Meadow and unfortunately it’s absolutely certain that a proportion of them will have cancer in one form or another. So, we owe it to them to try and help and reduce the problems caused by cancer.

“Apart from treatment, the key thing is raising awareness. You always think it will never happen to you but of course it does. People sometimes know there is a problem and hope it will go away but it never does unless you do something about it. The more people are aware of the dangers the better. Everybody has a story about how their mother, grandmother or aunty has been affected – or somebody they know – has suffered from breast cancer. If we can stop one person suffering unnecessarily from breast cancer, it’s worth it.”