Bare to Care
Commemorating Mary’s
energy and spirit.
A few years ago, I lost a beautiful staff member to Breast Cancer and I had wanted to run an event to commemorate Mary’s energy and spirit.
“Bare to Care” was a fun, body positivity sisterhood event for women who had survived breast cancer or were currently under-going treatment. It was for women who wanted to come together to celebrate lives lost or be thankful for those saved. It was about women sharing their stories, supporting each other, and having a day where, for once, they were proud of their bodies, not scared of them.
“Bare to Care” was an event bringing talented body-painting artists together with women who were baring all in support of each other, their story and to take back their bodies. Women taking ownership of their post mastectomy bodies, post reconstruction or were about to head in for surgery. Women laughing and celebrating their bodies as they were painted, a day away from treatment and ‘over thinking’.
A fun, body positivity sisterhood event for women who have survived breast cancer or are currently under-going treatment
Yes, the event was a fundraiser and yes, it was about educating women how to properly check themselves, and to do so regularly. But the event was also about empowerment, sisterhood and facing cancer straight-on. About taking back your body as yours, not something that cancer owned. It was different to most other cancer fundraisers and coffee mornings. It was about courage, fun and sisterhood. It was about finding a space for laughter in the seriousness.
The KH Foundation was delighted to fund and run the event. It did not change the world. But it did give something special to the women that attended, it celebrated the memory of those we had lost and it fostered laughter and much needed escapism, even if just for that day.
The funds raised on the day were donated to the Irish Cancer Society but that wasn’t the point. Sometimes support and community is what people need, not money.
