HMS Portland's Ship's company do their bit!

Not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to compete, on 20 May 2009 the ladies were put through their paces by completing 22 laps of the upper deck (three miles) in order to complete their own 'race against breast cancer' and to raise funds for the research work of charity Against Breast Cancer. This was the first time that this event had taken place on a warship, let alone a deployed warship at sea where temperatures during the run were far in excess of those experienced by any runners in the UK. The girls ran the 22 laps in their special 'pink' T-shirts, procured especially for the occasion, and they chose a variety of different ways of completing the run - from skipping to running to three legged!

Chief Petty Officer Ali James, who came up with the idea and organised the event said:

"As a group of females we were disappointed that being away from the UK for 8 months meant that we could not do our bit for breast cancer. I decided that we ought to try and do something in our own way and this is the result. The girls have trained hard for the event and we hope that we are able to raise a substantial amount of money for this very worthwhile cause."