Cancer support suits town to a tea

They say cancer touches every family at some point, and Kay Chaplin's experience has prompted the most positive response a community could imagine. 

Helensburgh's second Pink Ribbon Afternoon Tea will be held on November 15 to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation at Rex Jackson Oval, and, busy as she'll be, Kay will spare a thought for her aunty and her grandmother. 

“I lost my aunty to breast cancer quite a few years back and my Oma also had breast cancer, but thankfully, she lived to a ripe old age,” business owner Kay says.

“Breast cancer has touched everyone sadly, but last year, everyone took it [the event] as an opportunity to think about the ones that they were there for. It ended up being about connection and being together and supporting loved ones who are on that journey.” 

Kay, who moved to Helensburgh in 2008 opened a catering company after the pandemic.

At last year's first event, she expected 50 people and ended up welcoming 255, who together raised $23,484.

“It just absolutely blew up. I couldn’t even keep up, I didn't expect it to be an all-female event, but that's just obviously what the community wanted. There was a real sense of girl power," she says.

“It is quite a sad topic and ... has so much fear around it. And there was none of that. The day was just so positive."

Kay thanks Helensburgh for the overwhelming support she received last year. Local businesses donated time, money and resources to make the event a success.

“The Helensburgh Tigers are amazing and supported me the whole time, this year and last year,'' she said of the town's rugby league club. ''They gave us their space upstairs to use and all the furniture, they donated all their staff’s time and in the end they gave us all of the proceeds they made behind the bar. It was huge.”

This year’s afternoon tea is set to be even bigger. Kay has organised two outdoor marquees so more people can attend. Ticket holders will enjoy a welcome drink, afternoon tea, music, games and a raffle with prizes valued at more than $30,000. Over 350 tickets have been sold already.

“It shows how much people want to come together, people want to show up and make a difference in their own little way," Kay says.

It’s estimated that 1 in 7 women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and nine Australians a day die from the disease. Early detection is key to reducing death rates, as stage 1 breast cancer has an average five-year survival rate of 100%, compared to 32% at stage 4.

“This year the focus is around education and health literacy," Kay says. "We're just going to focus on education, but we're going to do it in a fun way.

“It's about not telling women what to do, but empowering them with the tools and the knowledge so that they can make the right decisions for themselves.

“We've got a couple of guest speakers talking about making breast cancer a bit more of a normal conversation – breaking down that stigma and helping to build trust from a community level."

This year’s event will include the launch of a new local breast cancer support group and online breast screening assistance service.

"The more that we talk about breast cancer, breast cancer screening, all of that kind of stuff, the more the stigma gets broken down," Kay says. "People can build their confidence to go and take that breast screening that they've been really worried about doing."

All proceeds go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, supporting their mission of zero deaths from breast cancer. To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit the Helensburgh Pink Ribbon Afternoon Tea Facebook page or donate via the foundation's website.