Cancer charity fashion show 'life-affirming'

"When they first walk on the catwalk, they're quite tentative. By the final scene, they're living life."

Jane Hinnrichs is the lead organiser of the second Charity Angels UK Dorchester Fashion Show, featuring 14 Dorset women who have experienced breast cancer.

The sold-out event is in its second year and aims to raise funds for research into secondary breast cancer, as well as show "there is life after a diagnosis".

Ms Hinnrichs also said she had seen a "kind of blossoming of the women on the catwalk".

"The people in the audience look at these women and they think 'My God, how far they have come since the early days'," she said.

"So the whole thing is uplifting and life-affirming and it's as much for the women as it is for the charity."

Ms Hinnrichs was diagnosed with breast cancer more than 30 years ago when she had two very young children.

She eventually became chair of the board of the trustees of Breast Cancer Care.

"One of their flagship events was a fashion show," she said.

"The event was a very large one, at a five-star hotel in London with celebrities, entertainment and there we had up to 30 models."

Ms Hinnrichs said, after putting on other events, in 2023 she felt there was an opportunity for a small fashion show.

In its first year the show raised about £9,000, and organisers are hoping to beat that total in 2025.

The Charity Angels UK Dorchester Fashion Show debuted in 2023, raising about £9,000

Statistics show about 56,500 women and about 390 men are affected by the disease every year in the UK.

Secondary breast cancer, where the disease has spread to other parts of the body, is still incurable.

Ms Hinnrichs said for many of the models at the Dorset show, meeting other younger women who had had a breast cancer diagnosis "was a completely new experience".

They also talked about the confidence they gained from speaking "to other women who knew exactly what they were talking about," she said.

She added that the five independent Dorset retailers involved in the show had been "amazing in their encouragement and their genuine pleasure at dressing these women".

Since its inception, Charity Angels UK has raised almost £100,000 for Against Breast Cancer.

The show will take place on Thursday at Dorchester Arts.