Friends planning breast cancer charity regatta at Port Hamble

A COUPLE of friends from Hampshire are planning a regatta to raise money for a charity close to their hearts. Tanya and Liane met a couple of years ago, whilst working on the South Coast sailing yachts. Liane was amazed to hear that Tanya was fighting breast cancer, but little did she know that she would soon be fighting the very same disease. Their friendship has grown as they have gone through treatment and the friends now plan to put on a regatta to raise money for the charity, Breast Cancer Now. Liane Williams said: “Once I finished my treatment for breast cancer I started to think how we could give something back. “We were just having coffee, and I said why don’t we try and organise a Regatta. “It’s the sort of thing we do for large corporate companies but we decided to develop it and see how we could make it about charity and breast cancer.” Both ladies found that throughout their time dealing with breast cancer, the sea helped them to keep their sanity, when physically and mentally they were ‘close to despair’. They have now started putting the event, the “Sail the Sea” Sailing Challenge, out on social media and say they have received a very positive response. The event will be made up of a series of short races and will cost £295 per head to enter. It is due to take place from Port Hamble on May 8, 2021. Liane added: “We don’t want it to be too serious as t’s for everybody and it will be lots of fun. No sailing experience necessary. “We want to turn the marina pink and hope everybody will come along.” The charity, Breast Cancer Now are providing t-shirts and promotional materials for the event with the ladies just wanting to raise as much money as possible. “With us both living on the south coast, being out at sea really helped us. “We also want to do it to encourage anyone going through breast cancer and want it to be a positive story about how you can get over this.”