Ladies come together to fight against cancer

While compering a charity event for Breast Cancer Care, Fiona is inspired by the many amazing women who’ve fought the disease

The highlight of the week is the annual Breast Cancer Care fashion show. The event has been going for 15 years now and is held in Glasgow.

I am compering the afternoon extravaganza. It is the second time I have done so – and it is an honour to be asked to take part.

For this charity show is colourful and fun. It will send folk home buoyed and thoughtful. Plus, it raises a large sum of money.

Taking to the catwalk involves serious hair and makeup sessions.

I am first to get the war-paint on. And, as things do when girls get together, talk gets round to family – or in this case, to four-legged friends.

Of the six makeup ladies, four, I discover, have dogs.

Karen proudly passes round pictures of two sleek-coated Weimaraners. I decide I want one – right now.

Helen shows me a photo of her cheeky Jack Russell. His name, appropriately, is Jack – and he looks adorable in the little red coat he wears to parade around the local park.

Not to be outdone, I get out my wallet and find a photo of the MacNaughties sitting in the snow. For once they are behaving and they look as if butter would not melt in their mouths. Then butter rarely melts in snow…

We bill and coo as if they were babies. Then, let’s face it, they are our babies.

But we cannot stand about, boasting about whose canine companion is the most devoted or handsome.

Because, besides yours truly, there are more than 20 other ladies waiting to come into the makeup room. Like me, they too must be painted and preened. Because their time in the spotlight is near. These women come from all parts of Scotland. They have, at some stage, been diagnosed with breast cancer and are coping with the disease in their own spirited ways.

There is Mairi of Dundee and Lorraine of Perth. Audrey comes from Bishopbriggs and was in her 30’s with a young family when she got the news that rocked her world.

Then there is Trish from Blantyre. Diagnosed 16 years ago and now facing a secondary cancer. Yet still upbeat and living each day to the full.

She tells us she’s walked the Highland Way and has been trekking in India.

Humbling, emotional, inspiring, empowering–all of it in equal measure. As most of us muddle on, they stand tall and brave… Not least on the catwalk. Some start nervously. But by the second time they appear on stage, they are strutting like supermodels. Smiling, waving, clad in gorgeous outfits.

All heights. All shapes and sizes. Each and everyone magnificent.

With friends and family cheering them on, there are plenty of tears – but mostly of pride and joy. The message is: do not let cancer define you. It is a word and does not have to be a life-sentence.

An amazing day. Ladies, I salute you…

For this charity show is colourful and fun. It will send folk home buoyed and thoughtful. Plus, it raises a large sum of money

by Fiona Armstrong