Breast Cancer Awareness Month | Abu Dhabi

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Over the last five years I’ve noticed how much more westernised the UAE has become. I was pleasantly surprised when we first visited back in 2008 that western brands and celebrations were available side-by-side with local and regional traditions which made the transition from the UK much easier and that has steadily increased over the years.

The Pink Walk at the WTC Mall

This years Halloween was celebrated everywhere, there was a wider selection of decorations for sale, shops and restaurants had gone all out and most hotels offered fancy dress parties or brunches of some kind. I have already seen so many more Christmas decorations than ever before and also available much earlier and last months Breast Cancer Awareness or ‘Pink October’ as it’s also know had a much larger presence than normal.

Thousands turned out in Dubai to support Breast Cancer Awareness at BurJuman Pink Walkathon (source: www.dayofdubai.com)

Tips and Toes Salon got involved donating money to the Pink Caravan Charity

There were opportunities to get involved with ‘Pink October’ at every level from Pink Mall walks, Pink Biathlon, 5k and 10K runs, Pink Pilates, Pink Coffee Mornings, a Bounce for Breast Cancer event on trampolines at Bounce in Dubai and a Pink Afternoon Tea at The Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal. Local magazines supported the cause with the iconic pink ribbon filling their pages and advertising all the fund-raising events.

Bodytree’s Pink for October Cancer awareness hashtag campaign (source:www.facebook.com/Bodytree)

Bodytree Studios, where I attend my regular Pilates classes, ran a month long competition throughout October to raise awareness using social media. Ladies were asked to take photos and tag themselves with the various hashtags awareness slogans around the studio and share them on their social media sites. I am very happy (and very surprised) to share here that I won the competition, watch this space to find out what my prize is ;-).

The studio also had a range of classes that were Pink for October (source:www.facebook.com/Bodytree)

The final photo grid from Bodytree’s Pink October Cancer Awareness campaign (source:www.facebook.com/Bodytree)

Go YAS donated to Breast Cancer for every lady that participated in the event (www.facebook.com/yasmarinacircuit)

Go YAS the ladies only weekly event turned Pink to support Breast Cancer Awareness

Myself, the teenager and our visitor at the time donned our best pink lyrca and supported the Go YAS Pink event over at the Yas Marina Circuit where the Yas Viceroy was illuminated pink in the background. Go YAS is the younger, quieter sister event of the popular Tuesday night Train YAS, a ladies only weekly event run every Wednesday at the circuit encouraging ladies to walk, run or bike the track in a male-free environment.

The iconic Yas Viceroy Hotel turned pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

Three sweaty Go YAS pink participants

We ate pink themed desserts at the Intercontinental Hotel’s Marina Brunch, not such a tough challenge and as I’ve mentioned in my previous post Hooray For Cooler Weather, I was impressed that the chefs were sporting pink ribbon embroidered whites in October.

Pink themed desserts at the Marina Brunch

I was catapulted back in time to a toddler group type scenario (amazing how much you grow away from those things once your children are older) at the Pink Coffee Morning.

The large event, held at The Clubhouse at Zayed Sports City, was well attended and successful, raising a whopping AED 22,500+ from the ticket sales and raffle alone for Breast Cancer Arabia. Guests were treated to a range of delicious cupcakes and other sweet treats were on offer and a ‘shopping street’ of local vendors selling their wares. A very generous raffle with lots of great prizes certainly helped the grand total.

A beautiful and delicious pink cup cake at the Pink Coffee Morning

The Red Team (source:Sasha)

My favourite one-off event was the CBDNow (Central Business District Network of Women) Goes Pink Treasure Hunt held at the Galleria Mall on Al Mayah Island. Competitive spirits were high as groups of ladies were running (there was actual running) decked out in charity t-shirts around the high-end mall searching and solving clues and collecting prizes from the participating retailers (think Anika Rice without the bright coloured jumpsuit and helicopter).

Treasure Hunt clues

The event was coordinated from the beautiful Armani Caffé by the CBDNow team, where drinks and canapés were served after the hunt as Dr. Harpreet Saini from Healthpoint gave an interactive Q & A about the disease and awareness. Read more about the event here and check out the photos.