Meet the group of marvellous ladies who are on a mission to change the lives of other women in Dubai – The Pink Ribbon Crafters and find out how you can help support their amazing initiative!

Run by women who have either been recently diagnosed, or are currently undergoing treatment, waiting on surgery or having completed treatments for breast cancer, they are also members of a breast cancer support network in Dubai called “Brest Friends” founded by Breast Surgeon Dr. Houriya Kazim.

Brest Friends, in partnership with the Al Jalila foundation, is a fully registered and recognised charity in Dubai, and as a result The Pink Ribbon Crafters are legally allowed to raise funds on their behalf.

For the past two years during the month of October, The Pink Ribbon Crafters have run an initiative to raise funds for other ladies in Dubai who have either minimal, inadequate or no health insurance, in order to help with their treatment costs. Known previously as ‘Candle Fairies’ last year they managed to raise a staggering AED 91,000 through gifting beautiful soya based candles to those who made donations to the cause.

This year they hope to break well beyond the AED100,000 mark with your support, as not only are they having specially commissioned gorgeous pink candles being produced again but also a number of their talented breast cancer ladies are producing various other equally gorgeous crafts, in order to expand their product range and hopefully raise a lot more money.

Some of those crafts include meticulously crocheted teddy bears, bracelets and clothing.

It was British mum Elaine Callander, a former A&E nurse and breast cancer survivor, who came up with the initiative of distributing candles as a way to say thank you to those making a donation to the cause. It was a huge success and this year,

“I was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 and underwent a double mastectomy in February 2014. I knew then that I wanted to do something about it to help others – and so the candle initiative idea was born. A breast cancer diagnosis is scary in itself for a woman, but having to additionally deal with the financial burden of it all can be devastating. One of my friends ran a candle company and we hit upon the idea of using candles for a cause,” said Elaine who moved from Dubai to Singapore but is still very active in driving the the campaign there and across the UAE.

100% of all funds raised by this initiative stays locally within Dubai with 30% going towards research into the disease itself and 70% of funds being raised going to help ladies financially burdened by treatment costs which typically ranges from AED 35,000 per session with a minimum of 16 sessions required. On top of this, Taxol is AED 16,000 per session with a minimum of 17 sessions required, Herceptin is around AED 17,000 per session and surgery often exceeds AED 100,000. Without adequate funding in place, there are plenty of women in Dubai in need of The Pink Ribbon Crafters support.

Last year, the group’s efforts aided in the breast cancer treatments of 24 ladies with the generous support of British mums who supported the cause enormously. This year, they are again looking again for your generosity to help even more deserving ladies.

To find out more please contact The Pink Ribbon Crafters at:

Email: pinkribboncrafters@hotmail.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkribboncrafters

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinkribboncrafters/

Read more:

Breast Cancer and My Road to Recovery