Pink for the cause

The crowd at Pakenham Cricket Club’s annual Pink Ladies function was once again treated to a day of fun and laughs, all for a great cause. 190247 Pictures: ROB CAREW

By Russell Bennett

Resilience, bravery, and the power of positivity – these were three of the themes to emerge from the sixth annual running of the Pakenham Cricket Club’s ‘Pink Ladies Day’ at Toomuc Reserve recently.

Once again, the luncheon brought ladies from right across the region together to raise vital funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer.

This year’s running of the event raised an incredible $11,280 – taking the running total so far soaring over the $35,000 mark.

Andrea Berkhout was the guest speaker for the event, and spoke bravely and straight from the heart about her own breast cancer fight.

In a question and answer session with Pakenham Cricket Club president Phil Anning, she spoke of her journey so far.

“Five years was basically my life expectancy, and six years later I’m still here,” she said to rapturous applause, adding that she couldn’t wait for the birth of her grandchild in a matter of weeks.

“In four weeks’ time we’re looking forward to holding our first grandchild.

“We just think very positively, and we’ve got a lot of support.

“The Pakenham Cricket Club is wonderful. We’ve been coming to this for three years now, and they’ve been outstanding.

“The hardest thing in all of this, I think, was telling my kids… but we pulled together as a family, and we’ve got a lot of community support, through things like the Relay for Life as well.”

Andrea apoke about her own breast care nurse having become a true friend, and someone the whole family could turn to.

Pakenham’s Pink Ladies function raises funds each year for the McGrath Foundation, which funds breast care nurses in communities right across Australia.

The foundation currently has 120 McGrath Breast Care Nurses who help individuals and their families experiencing breast cancer by providing physical, psychological, and emotional support – for free.

More than 67,000 families have been supported since 2005, but more nurses are desperately needed to meet the growing rate of breast cancer diagnosis in Australia.

Pakenham’s event was this year nominated for the Cardinia Shire Council’s ‘Community Event of the Year’ at its annual Australia Day awards.