Alicia Keys has teamed up with Stella McCartney for a new Breast Cancer Awareness campaign.

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys

The British designer has created a limited-edition Ophelia Whistling pink lingerie set to raise money for charity, and the 'Fallin'' hitmaker models the collection in an accompanying advertising campaign.

A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Breast Examination Center of Harlem and also the Linda McCartney Centre in Liverpool, England, which was started in the memory of Stella's late mother.

And for both women, the cause is extremely personal.

Speaking in a video clip, Stella said: "Every 19 seconds a woman around the world is diagnosed with breast cancer."

Alicia added: "So I'm showing my support by wearing Stella's Ophelia Whistling lingerie set, where a percentage of the proceeds are donated to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Breast Examination Center of Harlem, which is super important to me. I was raised in Harlem so this really resonates with me and also my mother is a breast cancer survivor and I don't think I've ever really got to really share that story, so this is important to me."

Stella added: "I don't think enough women know that. Sadly, I lost my mother to breast cancer 19 years ago. She didn't meet my children. My children didn't meet her, and we are here today to raise awareness."

The women also want to raise awareness about detection and examination for the disease.

Alicia added: "And to start a conversation and to break the taboos and to really encourage everybody to get checked."

She also told Harper's Bazaar online: "I just recently learned that African-American women have a 42 percent higher rate of mortality from breast cancer than Caucasian women in part because we don't always have the opportunity to get an early diagnosis or the right kind of treatment.

"So increasing that awareness is another reason this project is extremely important."