Project Rose

"Think it, do it, make a change"

"Think it, do it, make a change" is the motto of 15-year-old Lizze Mclean, a GCSE student and the founder of Project Rose, a Valentine's Day fundraiser for secondary schools that raises money for Cancer Research UK.

Raising money for breast cancer research

In 2006, Lizze's mum, Vic, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Lizze, who was just 13 at the time, wanted to do something to help. 

She set up Project Rose, a breast cancer campaign that allows students to send pink, silk roses to one another on Valentine's Day. 

For the first two years Lizze ran Project Rose at her school generating a fantastic buzz. It proved so popular that she sold out of roses and had to turn buyers away.

After her initial success, Lizze decided to pursue her dreams of making Project Rose a national campaign and secured the help of ITV Fixers and John Lewis.

“ITV Fixers helped me roll the campaign out to another nine schools and John Lewis sourced, supplied and delivered the silk roses. We launched our Project Rose website in 2008 and received lots of local news coverage,” she says.

The 2009 campaign was an amazing success, raising over £4,000 for Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work.

Looking to the future

Lizze plans to roll Project Rose out wider and make it a national campaign by 2012.

"My mum is now doing really well following her treatment, but others are not so lucky. If I can achieve my dream of every secondary school in the UK selling just 200 roses, this would raise an estimated £1.1m for research into this devastating disease," she says.

Join the fight for women's survival

Sadly, one in nine women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives. Cancer Research UK is the largest single funder of breast cancer research in the UK. We are making fantastic progress, but we can't do it without you.

Join our Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, Join the fight for women's survival, and help us raise vital funds for our life-saving work. Get involved by organising your own fundraising activity, making a donation or shopping with us.