The first-ever Bubbles and Bling for Booby Things fund-raiser for BreastAware at the Lagoon Restaurant this month was such a big success there are likely to be more similar fund-raisers run by local businesswomen.
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Lorraine Lehman-Jones, of Envy Jewellery, initiated the event to support the work of Casa Mia owner Maralyn Young's BreastAware program.
More than 100 women attended and helped raise money for the purchase of prosthetic education aids to help women of all ages learn to identify different types of breast cancer.
Ms Lehman-Jones said $2042 was raised, including a $250 cash donation on the day from Warwick Hansen, of Hansen and Cole.
Mrs Young, who also launched a CasaMia pamper centre in Fairy Meadow 18 months ago for women with breast cancer, runs the BreastAware program to educate women about how to go about early detection.
She said events like that hosted by Ms Lehman-Jones and the recent book (A Tale of Two Titties) published by breast cancer survivor Tanya Curran Brown were important because more needed to be done about minimising the risk to women.
And the key was awareness.
"We can't stop it but we can minimise it," she said.
"And we can reduce the number of women losing their breasts to breast cancer because early detection is the key to survival. One in eight women in Australia get breast cancer. That is 40 women a day or one every 36 minutes. They are someone's mother, sister or daughter, aunty or grandmother. It doesn't discriminate and it is increasing. And more younger women are now getting it."
Which is why the BreastAware message is being taken into high schools.
"The BreastAware program is all about empowering women of their own health by education and showing them how to minimise the risk of getting breast cancer and of losing their breasts and their life to breast cancer."
She also organised another event on Wednesday this week to help one victim in particular.
The Envy Jewellery showcase at Ms Curran Brown's hairdressing salon Serendipity Hair by Tanya was to support 40-year-old mother-of-two Bronwyn Johnson by helping her raise the $22,000 for new treatment that could be her last resort.
Donations can also directly be made under her name at every local branch of The Greater.