Our story
Founded by women
who'd lived it.
Eighteen years on, we're still volunteer-led, still local, still answering the phone the same week you call.
A kitchen-table charity, still.
In 2007 a small group of Gibraltarian women — most of them having lived through breast cancer themselves — sat around a kitchen table and decided enough was enough. There was no local charity. No-one to call when the consultant left the room. No one to drive you home from the airport after treatment in Spain.
So they started one. A phone, a notebook, and a promise: if anyone calls, someone answers.
Almost two decades later, we've kept that promise. We've grown — we've funded a cold cap machine, an ultrasound, the oncology suite at St Bernard's, biopsy chairs, M&S vouchers for newly-diagnosed women — but we haven't changed. We're still the kind of charity where the chairperson knows your name, where the team has been on the same chemotherapy chair you'll sit in, and where every fundraising pound stays in Gibraltar.
Three things we won't budge on.
1. Local stays local.
Every pound we raise in Gibraltar is spent on Gibraltar people. No overheads creamed off, no head office in London, no admin fee. The treasurer is a volunteer. So is the chair.
2. Free, always.
Support, listening, information, vouchers, hospital visits, hand-holding — every single thing we offer is free. No-one ever pays to be helped by BCSG.
3. We've been there.
Most of our volunteers have had breast cancer themselves, or have walked through it with someone they love. That's not a job description. That's the whole point.
Eighteen years, one promise.
2007
BCSG founded
A handful of women, a phone, and the simple promise that nobody in Gibraltar should face breast cancer alone.
2012
First Walkers for Knockers
What started as a small walk among friends became our flagship annual event. 12 years and counting.
2015
M&S Gibraltar partnership
A bra voucher for every newly-diagnosed woman — a small thing that means everything when nothing fits anymore.
2018
Cold cap machine donated to St Bernard's
Funded entirely by community donations. Helps women keep their hair through chemotherapy.
2020
Through the pandemic, we kept the phone on
Doorstep deliveries, video calls, hand-written letters. When the world shut down, we didn't.
2023
Oncology suite refurb at St Bernard's
£120,000 raised by Gibraltar. Reinvested into the place where Gibraltar's patients are treated.
2026
Still here. Still volunteer-run.
Same phone number. Same promise. New website (you're looking at it).
The people behind the phone.
Every single one of them a volunteer. Several have walked through breast cancer themselves. All of them will answer your call.
Chairperson
Heidi Alman Jeffries
"This charity exists because somebody once made a phone call. We answer every one."
Founding Volunteer · Former Chair
Mercy Posso
"I joined as a volunteer because someone was there for me. Twenty years later, I'm still here for the same reason."
Volunteer · events
Shereen Pizzarello
"Walking the Rock with a hundred women in pink — that's when it stops feeling like 'my' cancer and starts feeling like 'our' fight."
Behind them: dozens of volunteers who turn up to events, drive people to hospital, deliver vouchers, and answer the phone when no-one's looking.
Join the teamEvery pound, accounted for.
We're a small, volunteer-run charity, so our overheads are tiny. Almost every penny you give goes directly into care, equipment, or local support. Here's the breakdown of what BCSG has helped fund over the years.
Want to be part of the next chapter?
Whether it's an hour a month, a one-off fundraiser, or a regular donation — there's a place for you here.