Do Something!

A cancer diagnosis left me feeling helpless and dismayed.  I always looked after my body - exercised, ate healthy food, etc. I felt many things were out of my control, after all if I had been doing everything "right", what was the point?  About 18 months post-surgery, I was physically improving but needed help with scattered and angry emotions. I have found a good way to create positive feelings is to use my experience to help others, by raising awareness and helping charities. I quite like the challenge of finding something useful I feel able to do.  I have selected a few charities that helped me personally and a couple of other related ones: Paul's Cancer Support Centre, a small local centre, Maggie's London and Ovacome, which jointly hold a monthly meeting for younger ladies with ovarian cancer, Ovarian Cancer Action, which focuses on raising money for ovarian cancer research, and Target Ovarian Cancer, who tend to focus on campaigns to lobby MPs and policy makers to improve diagnosis times and treatments.  

I took part in a bucket collection yesterday for Ovarian Cancer Action.  It involved standing in a cold Victoria station, shaking some sleigh bells and looking faintly ridiculous in a glittery teal (charity colour) Santa hat. It was quite a tough gig - people are understandably busy and concerned with looking for their trains.  I focused on getting people to look at us!  Earlier in the day, there had been a choir to help out in the morning, which had encouraged people to linger and donate some coins.  The chief fundraiser told me that one year a supporter had bought along a St. Bernard dog and her puppy, which had substantially increased donations with people wanting photos. Yesterday I took over from a lovely family with two young children who looked very cute jumping around with their jingle bells.  The little girl was very serious, telling her mum off for talking to me and encouraging us to "focus".  

The year before last I helped out at a bucket collection for the same charity - on Sunday 15th March, Mothers day.  It was very moving to receive small donations from the public - one man said he donated because he had lost his mum to the disease.  It was also lovely to have mums encouraging their children (or the other way round) to put some cash in my bucket.  But my main impression from the day was meeting Abbie, a lovely trainee nurse who had sadly lost her mum to ovarian cancer.  She was bravely taking part in fund-raising on Mother's day in her memory and was a real credit to her family.  It is  not easy standing there and talking to the public, especially if you have a personal connection to the disease, but it does make you more determined to do something.  Even if you only end up with a few pounds, you see people looking at your banners and badges and it helps to raise awareness.

I find the collection days satisfying but not easy; however, there are obviously other ways to help charities.  An enjoyable thing I have found is to review books for Macmillan.  If you join their Cancer Voices network, you can select from a range of advertised opportunities that are listed for patients/survivors/carers/relatives to help other charities.  There are new relevant books published regularly which Macmillan ask to be reviewed in order to recommend them or otherwise to hospitals, support groups, doctors or nurses, etc.  You are sent a copy of the book and are asked to provide a review based on set questions, such as who do you thing the book is suitable for, what did you like about it, etc.

Other things I have done for charities include: bucket collections at Sainsbury's and the Royal Albert Hall; taking part in a focus group for Eve appeal (they were discussing the implementation of a helpline with a nurse to discuss people's concerns, this has now been put in place); signed an e-petition on Change.org 31st March as part of Ovarian Cancer Action's BRCA Right to Know campaign for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month 2015. It called for all women with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer to have access to BRCA gene genetic testing - a mutation in one of these genes increases the likelihood of developing ovarian cancer by around 50%; I have taken part as a catwalk model at Tea with Ovacome at the Mayfair for several years now; I have given talks to raise awareness with GPs and nurses, and also to a group of patients at St Goerge's Hospital.  

These things are not done totally altruistically, they ALWAYS help me to feel better about myself, to use my hideous experience and turn it into positive action.

Always a good idea to increase the cuteness factor when collecting!

Tea With Ovacome 2015

Wow, what a day! On Saturday 28th, Tea With Ovacome at the Mayfair Hotel was a great success by any measure.  There are thanks due to many people who have been working behind the scenes all year for the event.  It's aim is to raise awareness and funds for Ovacome, the ovarian cancer support charity. Firstly, Adele the organiser and her daughter Zindzi, who are both very inspirational ladies.  The champagne tea was originally Zindzi's idea and she was also an original catwalk model.  
Now in it's 5th year, the event is even bigger and better.  Karen McGhie, Emily Mulligan and Fay Newman at Apricot clothing were marvellous for making sure us models looked good and organising the clothes on the day and on the previous fitting.  Karen even came back from Spain for the weekend especially for the event. She kindly spent literally hours attacking and taming my hair with the hair straighteners and refused to give up on a tough job.  She was helped by Helen who is a beauty student.  Big thanks also to make-up artists Victoria Penrose and Sarah Marie who were sending out masterpiece after masterpiece from their temporary "salon".  Philip the owner of Apricot very generously donated the clothes to the models afterwards. Thank you, Philip!  

Apricot have again designed a dress and bag specifically to raise funds for Ovacome. March is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and this year Apricot have worked with Michelle Heaton, formerly of Liberty X, to promote the dress.

My own Apricot dress waiting patiently on the rail.

Lovely lady Sabrina from Simply Be and her team also gave up some of their own time to arrange a dress fitting in their Oxford Street store, along with plenty of fizz.  On Saturday, Sabrina was full of emotion watching the ladies on the catwalk and was fab behind the scenes, dropping all the clothes off at the hotel herself and making a trip all the way back from Exeter that morning.  It just shows how very generous people are and how much work goes into an event to help it run smoothly.

Sabrina also arranged for Simply Be to kindly donate their evening wear dresses to the models.  I love my quirky monchrome and lime Grazia geo-ombre print maxi dress which will no doubt be getting a lot of wear.  Thanks to my trainer Dan for supplying the muscular arms and the ability to fit into a size 12 again!
The ladies from Barry M nails again ensured we all had our Teal Tips on. 

For the third year, the company is donating 50% of each sale of Aquarium nail paint in Pacific during February and March to Ovacome.  

And look at the K. Middy hair that Karen and Helen achieved for me! (Never to be seen again).

I was so pleased to be supported by my lovely friends Sandra, Janet and Susan, my mum Joy and my aunts Violet and Sandra. Wouldn't be the same without you, ladies!

Act natural ladies and that's a wrap! (Below photo from Karen).

Click here for a write-up of the event in the 2015 Ovacome Summer Newsletter.

Model Behaviour

Today was the first Tea with Ovacome 2015 meeting for the 12 catwalk models to select our Apricot clothes (one causal and one dressy outfit).  I started the day believing I'd gone to the wrong place when I arrived around the back of Wembley Stadium in a deserted retail park. There was definitely tumble-weed in the car park behind a locked gate.  But inside, there was a lunch laid out and a lot of bustle around the rails of clothes.  Apricot have been wholeheartedly supporting the event since 2013 and have designed a second limited edition dress for the occasion; the proceeds of the dress go to Ovacome - last year it raised £17 K for the charity.  It will be on sale in March which is designated Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

One of the nicely organized dress rails before the hoard of ladies hit it

Apricot's 2014 teal dress beautifully modelled by Adele, the organizer of Tea with Ovacome.

A sneaky peak of the 2015 dress:

And a few pictures from Tea With Ovacome 2013 and 2014:

Must go now to practice my "walk".

Tea With Ovacome 2013

This photo "rocking the kaftan" (designer: BEyouT) was taken a year ago at the "Tea with Ovacome" day that my friend organizes at the Mayfair hotel.  I am now a "veteran" model and took part again this year in the fashion show that forms part of the entertainment during the gorgeous spread of cakes and sandwiches that the hotel lay on.  This year 250 people attended, with all proceeds from tickets and raffles and auctions going to Ovacome, a charity that supports women with ovarian cancer.  It is dear to my heart as I attend a monthly support group for younger women with ovarian cancer.  Although my cancer was uterine, rather than ovarian, it is also rare in younger women and there are no suitable support groups for women like me who are (were) pre-menopausal.  The younger group was set up by a very dear friend who is no longer with us, and I like to go to help keep her spirit alive in the group, but also it is an uplifting experience and I have met some amazing and inspirational ladies who I am proud to call my friends. 7 of them were my co-models in the fashion show, which took place on Saturday March 16th this year.  We had a lot of fun and there was plenty of giggling and nerves back stage, but by the time we had practised our walks and attitudes all morning and chosen some suitable music, we were well into the spirit of the thing and were cheered on by the welcoming crowd.  Hopefully a good lot of money was raised for the charity.  My colleague from work generously donated her time and talents to create some Mehndi tatoos and to help us with our make-up, which she did so well last year.
I'm already looking forward to next year........