Back at the beginning of March, I wrote this post entitled You’re Ovary Acting in aid of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month and pledged to hold my own event to raise funds and awareness for gynae cancer charity, The Eve Appeal. Having set the date for my Make Time For Tea charity fundraiser, I figured I’d best tackle two of my all-time personal pet hates: coffee and cooking.

I know most humans are drawn to coffee like cats to catnip, but for me it’s a major turn-off: the aroma, the bitter taste, the tar-like appearance. Just…no. Similarly, the very notion of trying to conjure up a Jamie Oliver creation in 30 short minutes is completely alien to me – I mean why would you even put yourself under that kind of undue pressure? Just thinking about pans bubbling over and utensils clattering is enough to bring me out in hives. The thing with cooking is that there’s just so much effort involved. You do the maths: take a gazillion ingredients, add several different cooking durations and temperature requirements, sprinkle in a few distractions such as Facebook and the telly, then subtract the luxury of enough time…equals so many opportunities for things to go pear-shaped. Far too much admin, if you ask me.

Fortunately, my distaste for all things coffee and culinary is countered by a love of tea and eating, so with a little determination I was able to overcome my lazy-girl issues and get cracking with the preparations. Well, it’s all for charidee, mate, after all. As my partner Andy imports coffee for a living, he supplied the good stuff (I’ll take his word for it), then I rolled up my sleeves and got my bake on…

Now I doubt Mary Berry will be fearing for her job anytime soon, but I have to say my lemon drizzle cakes (yes, plural!) came out remarkably well – so much so that a couple of friendly neighbourhood mice (or perhaps it was my parents), scurried in and nibbled one of them and I had to bake another. Weirdly, I didn’t mind at all – having overcome my concerns about the edibility of anything I could create in the kitchen, got past the faff of having to buy all the various cake-making components and worked out how to grate lemon zest without reducing my acrylic-nailed fingertips to bloody stumps, I actually began to relax and enjoy the bake. There may have been a flour cloud above my head and sticky lemon juice on every available surface, but licking the bowl was heavenly and the finished result made up for all the mess.

Whilst I cooked up a storm in the kitchen, my family rallied round to help get my house tea party-ready: mum loaning me the best family china; dad repainting my battered garden furniture that has definitely seen better days. My sister took one sceptical look at my child-unfriendly house full of angular units and breakables and began carrying out a full risk assessment…quickly concluding that a trip to her place to collect enough primary-coloured bits of plastic to open our own branch of Toys R Us was required. (Later, when I clocked her easing grubby little mitts off my travel memorabilia and back towards the toys I was extremely grateful for her contribution).

Zipping round the supermarket for some prefessionally-baked back-ups, I was aware of the judgemental glances of other shoppers; eyes sliding away as I clocked them peering at the cake mountain in my trolley: lemon meringue pie, swirly strawberry cheesecake, scones, red velvet cake, Taste The Difference carrot, morello cherry bake (that one was delicious, by the way) – you name it, I bought it. I looked like some crazed sugar junkie on a bender. I slung in a few bottles of prosecco for good measure and I was good to go.

On the morning of my event I awoke early to prepare the treat-filled feast for my guests. Having performed yet another last-minute supermarket sweep, the spread was looking even more bountiful: baked goods balanced on every surface. Sprinkling heart confetti on the table and adding flowers, I stepped back to admire my handiwork…

My sister, mum and cousins were my first guests to arrive. A special mention must go to my cuzzy Lucy Blake, a cake-baking whizz, whose impressive cupcakes complete with Eve Appeal logos and edible glitter drew gasps of delight from my guests.

Hungry ladies began arriving in their droves and we finally allowed my little nephew Hayden to get stuck into the cake table – something he’d been slyly attempting for the last hour, his mum and I swatting him away until the other guests arrived.

All my nail-biting fears of no-shows, mumbled apologies and texts of regret dissipated as the doorbell chimed; the tea was poured, the cafetière plunged and cakes gratefully eaten. Neighbours popped in, friends dutifully appeared; there were even a few surprise appearances and tears.

A timely collaboration with those lovely folk at TeaTourist meant that as well as my trusty PG Tips, I also had an abundance of interesting herbal tea blends to offer my guests. Available as a one-off purchase, a thoughtful gift or a monthly subscription, the company selects an array of carefully-crafted artisan teas from various respected suppliers and then delivers them to your door in a slimline box that fits easily through the letterbox, so no hanging around for deliveries. The complementary taster box I received included some intriguing flavours such as Chocolate Orange and the cinnamon-tinged Mulled Apple Brandy – although my favourite of them all is Rose and Strawberry. Each taster sachet has enough for four cups and includes information about the tea as well as the company who produce it, along with a discount code if you’d like to repurchase directly. Seeing as there’s a subscription box for just about everything these days, it makes sense to have one for tea too. (Use code FIRST10 for 10% off your first box).

By mid-afternoon the first sitting of tea-guzzlers had thinned out, so there was just time for a quick washing-up session and a replenish of cakes before round two. By this point I was buzzing: partly due to the sugar rush from all the cake-sampling, but even more so upon seeing my strategically-placed collection boxes overflowing with crisp banknotes. Way to go, ladies!

To add to the warm fuzzy feeling that gave me inside, Mother Nature provided a warm fuzzy feeling on the outside: Thursday 30th March turned out to be the hottest March day for five years, enabling us to spend the entire afternoon in the garden eating yet more cake and quaffing prosecco. High five, Sister!

The final guests left at 6pm, so I kicked off my shoes, had a cup of Wilderness Honeybush from my TeaTourist box and totted up the funds raised. The cash on the day totalled £265, with another £298 via my Just Giving account, giving a grand total of £563! Add to that the 25% gift aid and the total raised climbed to £703.75! How cool is that?! A pretty productive day, if I do say so myself…

So on behalf of The Eve Appeal and myself I’d like to say a huge and heartfelt “Thank you!” to everyone who donated to my campaign – either in person or online. Your generous contributions will enable this fabulous charity to continue their great work: protecting women’s health by helping prevent gynae cancers.

The word I’d use to sum up the day? Much like the cakes themselves actually:

“Sweet!”

The post Make Time For Tea – in association with TeaTourist appeared first on Life: A Birds Eye View.

My regular blog readers will know that women’s reproductive health and gynae cancers are matters close to my heart, having shared my cervical cancer experience and subsequent infertility with you here on my blog and also via the Huffington Post. So I was particularly proud and excited when the invitation to attend an event at The Detox Kitchen in association with The Eve Appeal pinged into my inbox recently. The Eve Appeal is a charity whose main aim is raising awareness and funding research in the five gynaecological cancers – ovarian, womb, cervical, vaginal and vulval.

Athena Lamnisos, CEO of The Eve Appeal charity, had read my article via Twitter and subsequent tweets around raising awareness, and so invited me along to the event. Of course I immediately accepted and attended last night, accompanied by one of my besties, Kez Wells.

The evening was fantastic from start to finish: we were warmly welcomed with a glass of bubbly and some delicious healthy canapes, before mingling with fellow supporters of the charity and actress/comediennes Jane Horrocks and Helen Lederer.

Athena kicked off with a passionate speech about the vital work of the charity, highlighting the fact that 21000 women are diagnosed with gynae cancer in the UK each year, with 21 dying daily, before handing the floor over to Cherry Healey. 

Cherry, TV presenter and author of Letters to my Fanny, gave a lively talk about the importance of knowing the various parts of our own anatomy as women, and the cringe-factor that we still feel when discussing what goes on “down below.” Despite having had a child and being in her mid-thirties, she still experienced embarrassment when talking to her doctor. This gave her the impetus to confront the stigma and write the book – one which I’ve now added to my ever-increasing reading list.

Next up was Caroline Presho, whose life has been greatly affected by cancer, (despite never having had it herself), due to her family history and being a carrier of the BRCA mutation, giving her and her sister an 87% chance of contracting the disease themselves. She told her moving story – culminating in a preventative double mastectomy and partial hysterectomy – with humour and grace. Fortunately she was able to have 4 children prior to the surgery, but spoke of her obvious concerns for her own 2 daughters; full credit to her for sharing her story and campaigning to educate and protect others. Find further information and support over at The BRCA Umbrella.

There was just time to have a gorgeous manicure (I opted for brick red polish complete with tiny heart-shaped diamantes) by mobile beauty specialists Perfect 10 using Essie products before the raffle was drawn…which I won!

I was presented with a gift voucher for a pampering home visit by Perfect 10. I can’t wait to get it booked into my diary – I’m off to Ibiza at the weekend so am eagerly eyeing up the full-body massage, which will be very gratefully received after an exhausting weekend’s clubbing.

There was just time for a informative chat with a few of the Eve Appeal’s staff about the essential work they do before it was time for us to head out into the autumn evening, carrying our ‘Stop Ovary Acting’ tote bags filled with period-related supplies and a host of goodies courtesy of Pinkparcel.

  

A huge thank you to all at The Detox Kitchen and The Eve Appeal for an inspiring and memorable evening, full of invaluable information which I will definitely be using in the future in my ongoing mission to help other women avoid gynae cancers.

You can support the valuable work of The Eve Appeal by donating here 

Sam x


Fancy reading my back-story before you go any further? You can find my other blogs at:

www.costaricachica1.blogspot.com
www.samgoessolo.blogspot.com
www.mummymission.blogspot.com
www.worldwidewalsh.blogspot.com

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The post An Evening with The Eve Appeal appeared first on Life: A Birds Eye View.