Another £1,000 towards potentially life-saving equipment has been raised thanks to a new business networking event celebrating inspirational women last week.
Female achievers from across Warwickshire and the West Midlands took the spotlight for a special event celebrating Resilience and Diversity in aid of hotelier Sue Cressman’s ongoing fundraising for Birmingham hospitals.
The two-times cancer survivor, from Dorridge, who underwent a mastectomy ten years ago, has been continuing to give back by, so far, donating £250k worth of medical equipment. The latest donation will almost complete the funding for another LOCalizer, a state-of-the-art non-invasive hand-held scanner which can detect breast tumours.
Sue said: “After this wonderful event celebrating International Women’s Day, we are delighted to have raised £1,100 towards an essential piece of equipment for University Hospitals Birmingham for their Breast Cancer Units.
“The equipment called a LOCalizer enables consultant surgeons to pinpoint an exact tumour on a patient during an operation. This allows more accuracy and less trauma to the patient.”
Sue was among the inspirational guests at The Ladies First Networking & Personal Branding Development Day, which also included Hannah King-Page from Meriden who received a special Resilience Award.
Thirty-nine-year-old Hannah was diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma brain tumour in October 2020 after suffering regular seizures. In November that year surgeons at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire managed to remove around half of the tumour and began a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments.
The latest of her six-monthly scans have shown no regrowth and Hannah, a former specialist musculoskeletal and pain management physiotherapist, has gone on to marry her partner Andrew at Warwick Register Office who is supporting her through her continued battle.
Donations can be made to the Brain Tumour Association at: https://www.braintumourresearch.org/donation
Also speaking was Naomi Issit from Rugby. Naomi launched the Our Jay Foundation in memory of her 18-year-old son Jamie who died suddenly following a cardiac arrest on New Year’s Day last year. Since then she has raised more than £50k and installed 40 life-saving defibrillators.
The charity also offers CPR training events and guidance and has, just this month, launched an information app available for download.
Naomi said: “It was the most painful shock that any of us could ever feel. He was my right arm. The only way I can even try and get through the days is to work for him and keep on making sure that his face is seen and his name is said and that things change, because he deserved so much better. I know he would be proud of that.”
Find out more about the Our Jay Foundation at: https://www.ourjay.org.uk/
Other speakers on the day included May Parsons, the nurse who made history when she administered the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine on December 8th 2020, in Coventry. Also Suzanne Linton, the co-founder of Freestyle digital innovation agency in Ashorne and the winner of the 40th Woman of the Year (Business) Award last year.
The event was organised by Director of Ladies First, Tracey McAtamney, who is herself no stranger to resilience.
The former Coventry Carnival Queen was widowed in her 30s and left as a single mum of two sons, when her husband suddenly dropped dead from an abdominal aneurism on a golfing holiday in Spain.
Some 15 years later, Tracey, from Balsall Common, joined a networking group – which she now runs – where she was encouraged to share her story for the first time. This opened the emotional floodgates and soon led to a book and the launch of a Foundation called Surviving Bereavement which offers legal, financial and emotional support for bereaved families. https://survivingbereavement.com/
She has also written a book about her journey called Hidden Strength, and completed her qualification as a Grief Recovery Specialist and is running busy Bereavement Cafes across the county.
She said: “I would like to express my thanks to everyone from within the Ladies First Community for making ‘our’ day such a success!
“It was both empowering and uplifting to have over 100 ladies gathered together creating a positive difference. With everyone taking away tips and techniques on gaining confidence and inspirational stories.
“It was especially lovely to be able to honour Hannah King-Page, who shows daily strength and courage following a brain tumour diagnosis, with our first Ladies First International Women’s Day Award for Resilience. Hannah, who has set up her own Foundation to help others, received a standing ovation and applause throughout the marquee.
“It was also wonderful to raise more than £1,000 in support of Sue Cressman’s ongoing appeal to provide Breast Cancer Equipment for local hospitals.”
