Phornrat Suksawat, Assistant Manager of Phuket Robinson Ocean department store in Phuket Town, launched the campaign on Wednesday (Oct 17).
Joining Ms Phornrat were Phuket Provincial Prison Director Soontorn Dechraksa and Chutiwan Boonsup, a registered nurse who is the resident expert on chemotherapy at Vachira Phuket Hospital.
The ‘Lingerie Sharing’ campaign runs from Oct 17 to Nov 11, Ms Phornrat explained.
“The project is held to share good things and to care for the hygiene and health of women inmates at the prisons through the country,” she said.
The ‘Lingerie Sharing’ campaign involves all 47 Robinson branches throughout the country, she added.
“For every B1,000 a customer spends on lingerie at any Robinson department store, Central will donate B50 to go towards buying female prisoners one new item of underwear,” Ms Phornrat said.
Customers may make separate donations of B50 as well, she added.
The campaign is being held in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Health Breast Cancer Awareness Month, held every October. (See here.)
Robinson every October joins the ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ campaign, and this year started their efforts on Oct 3 with ‘Bra Day’, Ms Phornrat noted.
“The aim is to motivate women to care for their own health and reduce the risk of breast cancer,” she said.
The activities on Oct 3 included a small talk on ‘How to live free from breast cancer’ and invited participants to sew pellets into sample artificial breasts to highlight what breast cancer patients have implanted.
The low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) pellets are surgically inserted into breast implants that are used to reconstruct the breast after removal of a tumour.
“The LLDPE plastic is free of chemicals that are harmful to the body and does not cause skin irritation. It is grade-certified plastic used in food packaging,” Jidapat Worasitanon, a Medical Services Consultant at the Phuket Provincial Hospital in Rassada, explained at a breast cancer awareness event in Phuket in December last year. (See story here.)
“There are no sharp edges and the plastic material is both soft and firm. It is suitable to be put into a breast as a substitute for the missing weight in the breast of a breast cancer survivor, in order to instil them with the same confidence,” she added.
The Phuket News notes that Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket also answers the call to help female prisoners with its annual charity project for women inmates, calling for donations of new – and second-hand – bras to donate to women inmates at Phuket Provincial Prison. (See previous story here.)
Phuket Provincial Prison Director Soontorn confirmed to The Phuket News today (Oct 19) that there are currently 235 female prisoners incarcerated at Phuket Provincial Prison.