“Conquer With Courage” CHARITY LAUNCH
7th March 2021
Aspiring new West Australian Designer, Karen Elizabeth Young (K.E.Y), took a courageous leap in more ways than one!
Karen had spent the previous 18 months conquering stage 3 breast cancer, but decided to conquer her design dreams next. During her BC treatments, Karen set about planning a charity fashion event that would not only provide a launch for her designs, but importantly recognise others with BC and donate to research.
Karen decided to call her event “Conquer with Courage”. She set about singularly organising the venue, sponsors, models, entertainment, staging, prizes, ticketing and advertising, whilst designing and sewing many of the clothes. She was also determined to have a charity event that would acknowledge a local Perth BC centre. After much research, she approached the Breast Cancer Research centre -WA, discovering that this organisation was entirely Perth based, but making global achievements in research and BC treatments. “It meant so much to myself and others to secure their support. I’m a local Perth girl, my heart is here and so is this company. Their value in research and subsequently saving lives, is immense.”
Karen found the perfect location next and set the date. The outdoors boardwalk at ‘Soul On The Point’, East Perth on March 7th provided the perfect location in terms of size and picturesque river surrounds. “It was so much hard work but this is where my teaching skills came in handy! I don’t shy away from work or details. It was a little touch and go for a while with covid lockdowns, but everyone was so positive, encouraging and supportive of this event.”
Karen decided she would prepare not just one collection for the runway, but two. “I wanted to give attendees value. They were giving me their trust and support. I felt they needed to be appreciated for that. I decided to have two parades, with pre show drinks, nibbles, entertainment and intermission.” Two collections, “Riviera” and “Shimmer” stunned a keen audience and a standing ovation followed. 68 garments were paraded by 12 models, at this very glamorous event, in front of 300 attendees.
“It was a huge success, I couldn’t have wanted for more. The sun shone for the first time that whole week, I had so many people wanting to come and many others who volunteered their time to help. I feel very blessed. I was able to achieve my dream, donate money to a worthy cause and recognise the courage of all those battling BC. It was an amazing day for all of us.”
A big heartfelt thank you to all those that supported and contributed to the “Conquer With Courage” 2021 Event.
