Health Wellbeing Relationships Counselling Services Auckland

Pink Ribbon Breakfast

29th May 2010

$509.20 raised for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation!

What a great morning! We had 28 generous, fun-loving guests. Everyone made an effort to wear something pink - even the boys! One enthusiastic guest wore her fluffy pink dressing gown! Very, very stylish! For breakfast we had cornflakes and muesli, fresh fruit, muffins with mango chicken and spinach, pink ribbon cupcakes, a vegetarian fritatta, bread with jam and marmalade, tea, coffee and orange juice.

We raised money through donations at the door, the sale of pink ribbon products (there are so many more products on the NZBCF website - check them out) and through the sealed auction of two works of art prepared by our counsellor, Shireen.

Our two speakers were so interesting. Our first speaker shared with us her own experience of breast cancer and told us that one of the things that annoyed her the most was when people asked her how she was feeling. She used to say that she was "fine" but wanted to tell them "I'm very sick, how do you think I'm feeling?" She understood that the question came from a place of caring but felt that people weren't ready to hear the real answer to that question - the answer that dealt with how hard chemotherapy had been, how hard it had been to lose her hair, how frightened she was... She suggested that instead of asking "how are you" we ask "what can I do". She reminded us all that though we do care and we do want to show that we care, sometimes the way in which we show it can be stressful for the person we are trying to show this caring to. The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation has some other ideas on how we can be supportive of friends or family members that are going through an experience such as dealing with breast cancer. Click here to find out more. Our second speaker Jan, of Mercy Breast Clinic, read us a story written by one of the women she has worked with as a breast care specialist nurse - a very different story to the first one we had heard. Both stories showed us how breast cancer is no longer a death sentence for many. At the same time, treatment is tough and we still need to work, not only to find more effective cures that are gentler on the body, but also to find ways in which we can support and care for the women and their families faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer. I hope that as you are reading this, you will also take this as a reminder to take care of yourself and the other women in your life and please do check yourself regularly and book yourself in for regular mammograms.