Since 2002, I’ve been fundraising for Breast Cancer Now by holding Afternoon Teas

I’m Rosie. I live in beautiful Norfolk with my husband, and previously with my daughters who now live fairly independent lives – but their childhood rooms are still very inviting!

I worked at the local hospital as an Orthoptist for 36 years, running the department and developing Ophthalmic services across the county.

Since 2002, I’ve been fundraising for Breast Cancer Now by holding Afternoon Teas.

I organised my first Afternoon Tea with my friend Debbie. The event was in memory of our friend Fae, who tragically lost her life to breast cancer.

She was way too young, just 41 years old

Debbie, Fae and I had been friends for years, and had children in the same village primary school.

Debbie and I are keen tennis players, and we came up with the idea of playing tennis and then having strawberries and cake as a fundraiser. The theory being that you can earn the cake by playing tennis!

The village tennis club are always delighted to contribute to the charity by letting us use the courts free of charge

After 10 years of 16 of us playing tennis and having cake and strawberries at the court, we decided to make the event a bit bigger. We started concluding it with a shared lunch in my garden, which is just 150 meters from the courts.

By then, most of our children were well into secondary school age so we didn’t have to rush off at 2.30pm to collect them from primary school.

A few years later (and with a few injuries between us), we found an increasing number of people just came to the lunch. Now the ladies who lunch are getting to almost equal the players, which is fantastic! More people normally means more money raised.

My top tip for planning an Afternoon Tea is… don’t expect perfection!

Sometimes it’s cold or drizzly when we play tennis, but we just snuggle under a blanket. Sometimes our garden is looking less than at its best, but no one minds. The main thing is we’re doing something important and raising money for people affected by breast cancer.

Our friends want us to do it numerous times a year now, as they think we have a good formula!

Debbie and I’s motivation to keep going is that every year we hear of more friends being affected by breast cancer

But we’re also seeing more people with better outcomes, so we really know that the money raised is making a real difference to the future of breast cancer.