What the what? I can hear you asking just what is it that I’m on about or maybe you think there’s a typo in my title.
Nope. No typo. This year I’m participating in Frocktober.
Again, what the what?
Quoting directly from the Frocktober website:
Frocktober is the campaign that empowers women around Australia to channel their creative flair through their favourite frocks, all while raising urgently-needed funds for the OCRF’s innovative research projects that help to shine a light on ovarian cancer.
For a day, a week or the whole month of October, something as simple as the clothes we put on our back has the potential to start important conversations, raising awareness of the lack of early detection method, of women’s experiences, and of how we as a community can do more to support ovarian cancer research.
Here are seven facts about Ovarian Cancer that you may not know:
- Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynaecological cancer.
- There is no early detection test for ovarian cancer.
- Each year, nearly a quarter of a million women around the world are diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
- In Australia alone, one woman dies every eight hours from ovarian cancer.
- Only 20-25% of women diagnosed at a late stage will survive more than five years.
- If a woman is diagnosed at Stage 1 (while the cancer is localised) then her survival rates are over 90%
- The OCRF receives no government funding and relies solely on the
financial support of corporate Australia and the broader community.
So how does Frocktober help? Well, it raises awareness and hopefully raises money as well. If you would like to help you can donate on my Frocktober Fundraising Page Here:
https://www.frocktober.org.au/my-fundraising/447/emma-lea
I’m going to be doing ‘Frock-up Fridays‘ which means every Friday I will be posting a pic of myself all frocked up…BUT with a bit of a twist. I’m going to be posting photos of me in my favourite frocks from my past.
Huh?
Well, my wardrobe is a little…shall we say, lacking. I spend my days in yoga pants and tights and don’t leave the house most days but I have all these photos of me wearing fabulous frocks from when I was more social.
So, yeah, you’re going to get to see photos of past-Emma starting with this fabulous one from my Year 10 Formal in 1988 (a formal is kind of like Prom, I guess. Year 10 and Year 12 had formals in my day, not sure if it’s the same these days). I was fifteen and I loved my dress so much (didn’t love my hairstyle all that much but, whatever…I was obsessed with Anne of Green Gables and loved grown-up Anne’s hairdo, didn’t quite pull it off though)
And yes, if you’re wondering, that is a snake-skin print on my dress (or maybe leopard print). I remember the day I bought it. My BFF and I caught a train into Sydney (I lived in the western suburbs) and we spent all day shopping. I picked this dress up for like $60 and I thought I was getting an absolute bargain. While everyone else was spending hundreds of dollars on their formal dresses I got this one on sale. Unfortunately, there was another girl at my formal wearing the same dress ☹️
I would love to see your formal/prom dresses! If you have Instagram or Facebook, post a photo and tag me in it!
And I’d be really grateful if you could donate to this worthy cause.