A new initiative created by four Southern Highlands women will transform the lives of women experiencing cancer.
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The Iris Foundation for Women was launched at a sold-out masquerade at Peppers Manor House last Saturday night and was created by and for women in the district.
Co-founder Nicole Meehan said the success of the event has made months of preparation worthwhile as they begin the next stage of the foundation.
“Our launching event was amazing and now that we have officially launched, we will start consulting with the community to see where we can be most useful,” Ms Meehan said.
“Ideally, we’d love to start before Christmas. We’d love to make these women’s lives a bit easier,” she said.
The Iris Foundation for Women is the brainchild of Nicole Meehan, Kathryn Parmenter, Brooke Thomson and Danielle Stevens after cancer had touched women in each of their families.
“We lost our cousin who had been fighting for 10 years, got the all clear and four months later was diagnosed with stage four and passed away. A year ago, another cousin was diagnosed and two weeks ago she was told she’s stage four. She’s 37 with two kids. This is close to home for us,” Ms Meehan said.
The four women began hosting annual events eight years ago, raising close to $100,00 for the Cancer Council in the process, but over the past year they decided to refocus their mission to a community-based approach.
We can’t cure cancer but we can make someone’s journey a little less stressful...it’s about making these things accessible for women in our community
- Co-founder Nicole Meehan
“We absolutely love the Cancer Council but we couldn’t see what we were actually doing and where the money was helping. We said: we need to do this ourselves,” Ms Meehan said.
After a year consulting with women that had gone through the big C, Ms Meehan said most of the feedback was about how to make making women’s day to day lives easier.
“We can’t cure cancer but we can make someone’s journey a little less stressful. Whether that’s meals prepared, lawns looked after or a weekend away; It’s about making these things accessible for women in our community,” she said.
While donations aren’t able to be accepted at this stage, people interested in partnering or supporting the foundation are encouraged to get in touch by visiting www.theirisfoundation.com.au.
“We want to keep it to the women we’ve grown up with, the women who walk through our business’ doors, the women we see at the school drop off.”
