Butter Fish Services recently held a Morning Tea Fundraiser in collaboration with Hunter Breast Cancer Foundation, to support Breast Cancer Awareness month. Our intention with this event was to bring together our local community to honour and support those affected by breast cancer. This event was to honour former HBCF board member and colleague of our Managing Director – Meg Purser. It was a day filled with warmth, strength, and, most importantly, a shared commitment to spreading hope.
#CancerDoesn’tDiscriminate
As an Allied Health provider, we see the disadvantages that individuals with disabilities are faced with daily. Breast cancer is no different, cancer doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t pick and choose, and it doesn’t see gender, race, religion, or ability. It affects all.
Breast cancer affects people from all walks of life, including those within the disability community. Raising awareness about early detection and accessible resources was a key part of our event. The creation of the event promoted Butter Fish Services to get in touch with our local community and had attendance from various businesses from the Hunter and Lake Macquarie region. This included Lake Macquarie Council, OzHarvest, the University of Newcastle, Bottrels Accounting and Taylormade Legal.
The Importance of Community
This event allowed us to connect with the local community and give back to those who need it most, creating a space where people could share their stories, experiences and words of encouragement, and contribute to raising awareness for Australia’s 2nd deadliest disease. Overall, we raised $500 to go towards Hunter Breast Cancer Foundation, and we couldn’t have done that without the input from our amazing community.
We had Novocastrian and Paralympian, Christie Dawes, as our featured speaker on the day. Her inspiring story created a room of positive energy. Her eagerness and encouragement was valued by all attendees, with each guest boasting about her ability to speak and convey a strong message. We initially approached Christie as she is a local woman with a disability, and we believed that she would have lived experience about breast screenings as a woman in a wheelchair. We got a lot more, we got to understand what life is like with a disability, and more importantly how Christie and others navigate healthcare – in particular mammograms.
It is crucial to get screened regularly and for those who are a part of our vulnerable community, it is critical that the primary support networks are up to date and are assisting those who may not be able to access healthcare themselves. This also applies to healthcare professionals, and at Butter Fish we want to encourage GP’s, nurses, specialists and others to take care of, hear out patients, and not take bias when screening those with disabilities. Most of the time, people’s disabilities are the only thing seen by health professionals, and as such misconceptions can occur and important health checks can be missed.
Looking Ahead
This event reminded us of the power of community. We’re proud to stand alongside our clients, team members, and everyone affected by breast cancer, including those with disabilities. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this memorable event. Let’s keep supporting one another, spreading awareness, and championing resilience. We look forward to seeing even more of you at next year’s fundraiser!