Jane began fundraising after her primary breast cancer diagnosis, and has been spurred on to continue after she lost a family member to secondary breast cancer.
Jane began fundraising after her primary breast cancer diagnosis, and has been spurred on to continue after she lost a family member to secondary breast cancer.
A difficult loss prompted me to raise money for Breast Cancer Now
I have been fundraising for Breast Cancer Now for just over eight years. My fundraising began following my own diagnosis in 2011 and that of my nephew’s wife, Julie, the following year.
Sadly, Julie passed away in 2015, shortly before her 35th birthday. It was awful to see the devastation her loss caused to our family, especially my nephew and his three young children. This heartbreaking experience really is the driving force for my continued efforts to raise money.
For the last few years, I’ve been hosting an annual Afternoon Tea for lovely friends, family and people from the community.
COVID-19 presented some fundraising challenges
Last year, given the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions implemented, I thought I’d have to cancel my event. Then I saw the idea of organising a takeaway tea and instantly thought: I could do that!
And so, the takeaway Afternoon Tea idea took hold.
I posted about it on Facebook and the next day my inbox was flooded with positive messages from people, which was amazing. I started taking orders via social media and a local café even offered to donate the scones!
On the big day, I was so excited to start assembling the Afternoon Tea boxes for 50 people. Each box contained a scone, jam & clotted cream, a chocolate orange cupcake, a pink iced heart shortbread and a traybake of some description. I asked for donations for each box and was delighted to raise £500 in total. People mostly donated beforehand so that I didn't have to worry on the day.
Fundraising brings out so much kindness
One of the highlights of the day for me was that a friend very kindly made a donation on behalf of someone else. They asked me to make up a tea for someone locally that I thought deserved a treat at this difficult time, so I gave the box to a lovely lady who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
The takeaway teas were a huge success and I had lots of wonderful compliments about them. I will definitely be keeping them on my fundraising list for future years - pandemic or not!
Like Jane, sign up today to have your own Afternoon Tea to raise funds for vital research and care.