The primary core features of any company holding CIC status are two fold:
Assets owned by the company are held in an asset lock which secures these assets to applications for the good use of the community.
CIC can vary from small ‘kitchen table ‘ type organisations, to multi million pound turnover organisations employing thousands of people. They are set up as both Company limited by guarantee and Company limited by shares, and are often described as mutual or Social Enterprise.
The format of CIC was especially important to me as it fits with my desire to support my community, and to enable people to have work experience with us, for some to be employed-albeit on a basic wage for a maximum of 16 hours. There is scope to make decisions more quickly than with a Charity Trustee ship, so when I have new ideas I can develop them more quickly and I think this keeps Pants fresh !

We support the women’s refuge and people who are struggling to afford basic furniture for their homes by giving them some of our furniture. Obviously we are glad to help those in need who do not have cancer as it will give us the opportunity to raise awareness.
We give money to those with cancers and their families when they cannot afford all they need.
We provide fitness programmes for those surviving cancer which Steve Winnan, sports scientist, manages for Pants. Steve underwent special post grad training at St Thomas’s Hospital in London and placement at the Royal Cornwall Hospital with the gynae cancer team to prepare him for this important role. We have a small gym, Active Pants, at the Unit Six, Ponsharden by Sainsbury’s. Steve works from here, and at people’s homes, sharing the skills he has learned from the CancerRehab programme and being one of the only specialists in this in the South West.
We are free to develop within our community to achieve our goals of raising awareness of pants area cancers, and to support those with these type of cancers. The CIC has enabled me to use my previously unknown entrepreneurial skills without the more precise requirements of the Charitable Status, but importantly with the legal requirements which underpin all that we are able to do.
So many people have worked so hard to make this all possible and my gratitude to all the helpers is beyond words, and of course, to all our customers.
The great news came through yesterday from the man who has been sorting our Charity Application that we are now a Charity as well-Pantscancers. Number 1147098.
The charitable status is important in many ways but especially means we can use Gift Aid and make more from your wonderful donations.
The Charity will be run by Trustees and will fundraise for an important project to aid the diagnosis of cancer patients. We will do everything imaginable, and not yet imagined, to raise awareness of these pants area cancers and to encourage people to take note when things are wrong and seek medical advice.
The money from Pantsmatters CIC will feed into the Charity.
I will remain focused on the Shops and all the work we achieve through them, but plan to withdraw from the Charity aspect as time goes on simply because of all the time it takes and because I am not a committee person. My drive to raise awareness makes it hard for me not to just get on with things and the CIC has been perfect to enable this to happen.
The Charity will move forward with some very able trustees, and more are about to join bringing a whole range of skills and experience to benefit our aims.
I plan to spend more time promoting what we are doing and getting our brand known.
We are connected world wide with some incredible contacts who are joining up to the International Gynae Awareness Day each year on September the 10th. This is the dream of Kath Mazzella,gynae advocate from Perth in Australia who has been an inspiration to me. Kath is 16 years post radical vulvectomy from cancer and since then has moved heaven and earth to get people to become aware and especially to note that cancer can occur in the vulva-the outer area of the woman’s genitalia- which is an area not even mentioned in many text books..so it is hardly surprising that women have no idea they can get cancer there. The misery of this type of cancer is unimaginable and despite all she has to cope with, Kath dedicates her life to raising awareness and making people label their bodies correctly in anatomical terms..it makes a difference. She does much more besides and I am proud to be associated with her and many others world wide who are changing the way we view women’s bodies and the way we come to understand our own and to know when something is wrong. There is not sufficient screening to pick up on changes, so it is down to us as individuals to check ourselves and the website www.pantsmatters.org.uk has a wealth of information about this.
As I had womb cancer, my interest primarily was in gynaecological cancers, but since opening the shops and having so many people talk about their type of pants area cancers and becoming aware of the misery these cause as well, I have moved on to raise awareness of all the cancers in the pants area.
One day everyone will recognise the Pantscancers Logo and will know it means the embarrassing stuff no one else wants to talk about.
It will remind women to have their smears, and tell them that the smear is so important, but does not show all the other cancers women get including vulval, ovarian, womb.
It will encourage parents to protect their teenage children from the Human Papilloma Virus by vaccination- and hopefully men too. This nasty virus which is as easy to catch as a cold is, leads to cancers in the mouth, anus, vagina, vulva, penis. Yes the HPV is sexually transmitted, but in theory the vaccination is no different to protecting our children from measles, and will help save their lives
It will help men to talk to their GP about changes in their testicles, or their penis. It will alert people to changes in their bowel habits, or blood in their pee and that way we will stop people dying from embarrassment and ignorance and fear….bring it on !
Stop the heartache which the unnecessary death of a loved one brings. www.pantsmatters.org.uk
Jeannette Preston 3.5.12 07753729171

Updating...