Pink tractor gears up for cancer awareness

Aug 6 2010 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A PINK tractor has certainly been turning heads at West Huntingtower.

Parked outside Agricar’s Crieff Road premises, the flamboyant agricultural workhorse has proved to be a real magnet, even pulling in the odd passing tourist for impromptu photo opportunities.

Although a few farmers’ wives have fawned over the flashy New Holland T7000, the pink paintwork does not signal any emerging new trend, despite the tractor having its’ own Facebook group.

The tractor was specially modified by the agricultural machinery business to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Campaign, and after appearing at various Scottish shows has so far generated £3558.

Dreamt up by female staff at Forfar dubbed the ‘Agricar Girls’, the pink tractor was a real crowd pleaser at the Royal Highland Show and similar events at Angus, Fettercairn, Kirriemuir and Banchory.

Its’ finale is at this weekend’s Perth Show, where with collection bins attached and a supplementary raffle to win a Blackberry Pearl 3G phone worth £300, organisers hope to boost cancer research proceeds.

Agricar Girl, Alice Cairns, explained that after six years of annual smaller scale Pink Day fundraisers, she and her five colleagues had been bouncing bigger ideas around the office.

“Normally we do a bit of baking but we were looking to something a bit more prominent,” the sales administrator said. “Then one of our directors half-jokingly said how would you like to paint a tractor pink? – and we immediately said yes!”

After being unveiled at the Angus Show, the eye-catching pink machine was wheeled out at the massive Royal Highland Show, where its prominence saw it being pegged as an easy find meeting point by visitors.

She said the tractor’s high profile, which sparked a Facebook group – Agricar Girls supporting Breast Cancer – had hopefully helped boost awareness about breast cancer.

“It’s something I believe in; my sister had breast cancer when she was 40, which is quite young, but she recovered, and of the girls in the office, her mum died from breast cancer,” she said.

“But nowadays a lot of men are also being diagnosed with breast cancer, so it’s not just a female condition and I don’t think there’s a great deal of awareness about that.”

Post-Perth Show, the tractor’s pink panels will be removed and placed in storage, possibly to be resurrected for this year’s Breast Cancer Campaign’s awareness month in October.

“That’s a possibility as I don’t think they’ll let us paint a combine harvester pink!” she said.