The Pink Ribbon High Tea is a Cairns based event raising much needed funds for breast cancer awareness & prevention. Grown in popularity over the last couple of years, the event offers ladies (and gentlemen) the chance to enjoy a glamourous event with the opportunity to dress up in beautiful surrounds and enjoy an amazing, contemporary high tea.

Entertainment includes inspiring guest speakers, displays & demos by local Cairns businesses, a fashion performance (with a difference), an exciting auction, live jazz and the chance to win many prizes!

Inspiration behind the event…

My motivation behind the Pink Ribbon High Tea was that a good friend of mine was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer in December 2007 at the age of 36.

I found it a huge shock as I had never really given breast cancer a thought before, and Sharon is such a health conscious person always into fitness and nutrition and having just been climbing mountains in Nepal, it just seemed unbelievable as to what she was about to go through.

At the same time I had a couple of family members going through treatment for other cancers and I just thought enough is enough.

I saw all the beautiful gifts, flowers, books and teddies that Sharon received in support which was beautiful but I just thought its not going to change things at the end of the day, and I felt like I needed to do something to make a difference.

I have always supported Girls Night In in the past as it was a good excuse to get the girls together at my place and have a few drinks without the boys, however now I had a reason to do something huge. Holding a major fundraiser I felt was the closest thing I could possibly do to make a difference. So the Pink Ribbon High Tea was held in 2008 at the Shangri La and was a huge success with over 200 people attending and raising $10,500 for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

I never really gave breast cancer a thought before Sharon was diagnosed, and since organising this event it has really opened my eyes to the number of women who have been affected by it, and it has made me even more determined to carry on with the fundraising.

My Hero!

I admire Sharon very much, she is a very inspiring person who has met the challenges she has been dealt with head on. It has transformed her life and made her into a very determined person.

In 2009 Sharon could not attend the Pink Ribbon High Tea as she was back on the mountains doing what she loves best, an amazing bounce back considering only 12 months before she was going through breast reconstruction.

Sharon successfully became the first breast cancer survivor in the world to have summited Ama Dablam at 6812m, and her goal does not stop there, Sharon is planning to be the first breast cancer survivor in the world to Summit Mount Everest, and will be climbing four mountains over the next three years with the last being Everest, to raise much needed funds and awareness for breast cancer research.

Below is an amazing and inspirational documentary of Sharons journey, kindly produced by Brett from BGJ Productions, which we would like to share with you.

and a BIG thank you!

I also need to say a HUGE thank you immensley to my other buddy and sidekick Jackie Fairfull, without having you as support, I would never have been able to make this event a success!

Emma x