Modelling vulvas from playdoh, pin the ovaries on the women's reproductive system and timing how long it takes to move marbles from one container to another with a speculum.... The teacher in me totally came out when arranging the fundraiser event in order to raise money awareness for gynae cancers.

We were very aware in the early stages of organising the event that we needed a focus to the evening and Bethan (from Bethan Kate's Tearoom, Pentyrch) and together we came up with the 'challenges' idea. We both really felt strongly that those attending should be given the opportunity to learn something new and feel comfortable enough to discuss subjects related to gynae cancer and the women's reproductive system. 

The Event took place Friday 25th August 2017 between 7-9pm at Bethan Kate's Tearoom, Pentyrch.

The five challenges:

Challenge 1.  Using playdoh to model vulvas of the women's reproductive system. The Eve Appeal had surveyed women last year with less than a third being able to label all six parts of the women's reproductive system. It was great watching women, of all ages producing models of all shapes and sizes!

Challenge 2. Pin the ovaries on the reproductive system, for this I used a diagram from the range of materials provided by The Eve Appeal (find them here) laminated and made a blindfold from excess material from my V Collection 

Challenge 3. Consisted of creating a little ''friendly' competition but also gave those who attended the opportunity to handle one of the items used to administrate a cervical screening test - a speculum! So often by the time the speculum has been produced we are legs wide open and staring at the ceiling, trying to make small talk about the weather or the latest village gossip! Moving marbles from one container to another using a speculum was the aim and harder than it looks!

Challenge 4. Also using info provided by The Eve Appeal, from their 'Vagina Dialogues' encouraging guests to break the ice and discuss gynae related subjects. I really made it clear that nobody should talk about anything they felt uncomfortable about, however, people seemed to relax in the atmosphere created and were happy to talk 'bush or bare' and 'best and worst names for the 'vagina''. 

Challenge 5. I produced a laminated A3 sheet with 10 statements with missing statistic blanks from the Gynae quiz round created by The Eve Appeal. Guests had to match statistics to the statements. 

To end the evening all those attending were given vulva cupcakes, created by Bethan. I know there were a few left over which people were more than happy to donate money in exchange for gifts for friends and husbands!!

We raised £351 in total on the night! But to me just as importantly people were talking about gynae cancers and the importance of booking in that cervical screening test every 3 years - are you up to date?

The V Collection is a collection of bags and purses in partnership with The Eve Appeal. £7/£5 from every clutch bag/purse sale is donated straight to The Eve Appeal, the only UK national charity raising awareness and funding research into the five gynaecological cancers – ovarian, womb, cervical, vaginal and vulval.