Saturday November 22, 2008
Carnival celebrates fight against breast cancer
By JADE CHAN
THE Hot Pink Carnival was a fun party held to celebrate the fight against breast cancer, and to commemorate the finale of the Passionately Pink Project with a night of music and arts.
The “star” of the event was the pink duck, which served as a good-humoured reminder to “Don’t Duck a Breast Exam”.
The duck icon and message were aimed at drawing attention to the cause of raising awareness of breast cancer among the community, as well as prevention methods and treatment options available.
Themed Know. Prevent. Cure, the campaign was a collaboration between Assunta Hospital, Asia Assistance Network, Jaya One and PJ Live Arts.
Through a series of events and fundraisers, it raised more than RM100,000 for the Assunta Foundation’s Social Welfare Fund in aid of breast cancer patients and the underprivileged.
Combination of martial arts, games and dance: Bantus Capoeira players amazing guests with their Capoeira performance. Stars like Ida Nerina, Atilia, Edwin Sumun, Nell Ng, Melissa Ann Tan, Goh Wee Ping, Doul, Datuk Zahim Albakri and Salamiah Hassan came dressed in their pink outfits and entertained guests with songs and comedy acts.
These stars, along with others from the fashion and entertainment industry like Datuk Bernard Chandran, Aishah Sinclair, Amber Chia and Daphne Iking, had pledged to make a difference in the movement against breast cancer and contributed a designer duck each for public bidding via the Celebrity Duck auction.
Meanwhile, the Counting Ducks with Groovy Goo offered a RM5,000 cash prize to the person who guessed the number of rubber ducks in a designer Kangoo car.
It was sponsored by Renault and required a RM10 donation for participation.
Other fundraising activities included the sale of pink rubber ducks and other Passionately Pink merchandise.
Night of music and arts: Theatre personality and PJ Live Arts artistic director Datuk Zahim Albakri (centre) having fun with one of the visitors during the games session at the Hot Pink Carnival. Carnival visitors were kept busy with a line-up of actvities and performances by Bantus Capoeira players, Viva Vertical pole dancers and Argentine tango dancers, while Ella’s performance was the highlight of the night.
“We want to send the message that early detection saves lives and for women to not fear or be in denial that breast cancer could affect them,” said Assunta Hospital CEO Choy Wah Wei.
“The objective of our three-month campaign was to reach out to women, inform and educate them about breast cancer, encourage them to take care of their breast health, and teach them about breast cancer and breast self-examination.
“Besides running workshops and examinations throughout the campaign at Jaya One, the team from Assunta Hospital also ran health camps at various corporate offices,” he said.
“The campaign was very successful. About 400 women, including those from the corporations, underwent the checks conducted by our team.”
For PJ Live Arts executive director Teri Choong, the campaign was particularly significant to her as she is a cancer survivor who happened to be working on a breast cancer campaign when she was diagnosed in 2005.
“Many people are ignorant about cancer. I’ve seen how many people care about themselves physically and financially, but not their health.
Upper-body strength needed: A girl from Viva Vertical wowing guests with her pole-dancing skills. “Young people perceive that they won’t get sick and that cancer is an old person’s disease,” she said.
Choong’s advice is to take care of one’s health and that early detection helps, and for those afflicted with cancer to not moan and do all the things that they have wanted to do.
She already has plans to make next year’s campaign a more wholesome women’s programme that covers several diseases that affect women.
“I hope to bring in more sponsors and reach out to more people. Ultimately, it’s all about sharing and giving back to the community.”
Source:
RSS
