In 2008, Denise was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. During her treatment, she found fundraising to be the perfect distraction - and she still does it today.
My fundraising group is so enthusiastic
I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2008. While undergoing a year of treatment, I wanted to keep my mind active. I ended up getting involved in fundraising, which became a good distraction.
I was involved in organising a 'pink party' - the first of many - in October of that year, and a few years later helped to set up our Burgess Hill group. We have so many lovely ladies who show their dedication and enthusiasm in lots of ways; including our group treasurer, Nicola, who has been on board since the very first pink party, Debbie, who helps rally support in selling event tickets, and Tania, our in-house yoga teacher. Between us, we have been able to fundraise with so many different events.
Covid has meant we've had to be inventive with our fundraising
Covid has been challenging in all sorts of ways, but especially in how we maintain some forms of fundraising. We have had to be inventive to keep up, and this year we have decided to sell more of our handmade crafts.
Our biggest seller is the knitted Father Christmasses, which we take advance orders for (therby keeping the cost affordable for anyone that still wants to support us in these tough times). People love that they are handmade. My mother makes most of them, but with a little help from my sister and I. She loves knitting and wanted to make sure we could still fundraise during lockdown.
Last year, we had lots of requests, and you can imagine the amount of time needed to make each item! So, this year we put out for orders early to give us enough time.
As we have had to cancel all of our usual events, we are hoping we will get lots of support with orders.
Get involved
Interested in raising money for Breast Cancer Now? Visit our fundraising pages to get started.