During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, M&S is celebrating 25 years working with the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, by spotlighting the specialist post-surgery collection and expert BraFit™ service at the heart of its longest-standing charity partnership.
Since the partnership began in 2001, M&S colleagues and customers have helped raise more than £35 million through fundraising and the sale of products, supporting Breast Cancer Now’s vital life-saving science and helping the charity provide life-changing information and support.
At the heart of the partnership is M&S’s specialist post-surgery collection. 2026 also marks 20 years since M&S launched the first post-surgery bra on the UK high street. Today, the collection combines M&S product innovation and lingerie expertise with Breast Cancer Now’s insight from people affected by breast cancer. The partnership also includes the specialist BraFit™ service and awareness activity, such as breast cancer signs and symptoms guidance introduced across women’s, lingerie and colleague changing rooms in 2023.
Supporting every customer with expertise and care – 20 years of innovation
Developed closely with Breast Cancer Now, the collection has been shaped by expert insight and the direct experiences of people affected by breast cancer. Breast Cancer Now brought together people with lived experience and clinical nurse specialists to test, trial and share feedback, while M&S also listened to its expert Lingerie Stylists and Customer Service colleagues. Their insight informed new styles, a wider choice of colours, modernised silhouettes, fabric innovation and greater versatility.
The VAT-exempt collection includes 24 products, including accessories, across 10 different styles, spanning full-cup and non-wired bras, camis and Post Surgery Pockets. The range is available in 240 stores nationwide and is designed to help customers feel comfortable, confident and supported following surgery.
M&S’s BraFit™ service is delivered by more than 2,00 expert Lingerie Stylists, who together fit around one million customers each year. All Lingerie Stylists are trained in post-surgery fitting and understand the different needs customers may have at each stage of treatment and recovery, which enables them to offer personalised support with care, sensitivity and expertise.
A BraFit™ appointment is designed to put customers at ease. There is no requirement to remove clothing, and customers can be measured while wearing a top if they prefer. The complimentary service helps customers understand their body shape, size and the styles that will offer the right comfort and support.
Charlotte Davies, lingerie director at M&S, said: “We’re incredibly proud to celebrate 25 years with Breast Cancer Now. It’s a partnership that has enabled us to support vital research while also using our lingerie expertise to make a practical difference for customers affected by breast cancer.
“Our brilliant lingerie stylists and expert Bra Fitters are a huge part of that. Their knowledge, care and sensitivity help customers feel comfortable, confident and supported – particularly those navigating life after breast cancer surgery.
“We’re grateful to Breast Cancer Now, our colleagues and our customers for everything we’ve achieved together, and we look forward to continuing this important work.”
Lucy Crisp, head of corporate partnerships at Breast Cancer Now, said: “For 25 years, our partnership with M&S has helped make a real difference to the lives of people affected by breast cancer.
“The incredible £35 million raised by M&S colleagues and customers has helped fund our life-saving research and provide life-changing support, while our work together on post-surgery lingerie and specialist BraFit™ services demonstrates the importance of listening to people affected by breast cancer and responding to their needs with care and understanding.
“We’re proud that our expertise helps M&S to be there for women at every stage of their lives, including through and beyond a breast cancer diagnosis. With one woman being diagnosed every nine minutes with breast cancer in the UK and a man every day, this support is pivotal for us to change the future of breast cancer. Thank you, M&S.
“We’re hugely grateful to M&S, its colleagues and its customers for their continued commitment. As we look to the future, amazing partnerships like this are vital to helping us move closer to our bold vision that by 2050 everyone with breast cancer will live and live well.”
With one in seven women in the UK expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, M&S and Breast Cancer Now will continue working together to support vital research, raise awareness and help ensure people affected by the disease can access trusted information and support.
