by Rachel Ogbu

The second edition of Fashion Fantasia will hold on Sunday November 25 at the Oriental Hotel Lagos.

 Fashion Fantasia is a benefit fashion show and fundraising for breast and cervical cancer. The objective of the event is to raise funds for 500 women to receive free breast and cervical cancer screening as well as to raise funds to assist two women who already have cancer, and are financially unable to pay for their medication.

The on-going fight against breast and cervical cancer will receive an added boost with Fashion Fantasia, an initiative of leading ladies.

Fashion Fantasia is essentially a benefit fashion show and fundraiser aimed at creating awareness for breast and cervical cancer.

The first edition of the show which took place last year on December 23 at the Four Points Hotel, Oniru, was able to raise funds to get 300 women screened for breast and cervical cancer free of charge.

 This year, the event is themed #EachOneCheckOne – emphasising the need for women (and men) to go for constant checks and get screened regularly. Speaking on the event, Project Visionary Francesca Uriri said: “Cancer is on the rise globally, there is no more efficient way to fight it, than to prevent its spread. This is essentially why we’re using fashion as a platform to ensure that women realize just how important it is to get their monthly checks done. Early detection of any type of cancer helps increase the rate of survival; and this is one of the key things we hope to re-iterate with this event.”

Commenting further, she said “The fight against cancer is crippled by many factors, primary amongst them, information. Women usually don’t know how to do a simple breast examination; they don’t know where to get their HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer and sometimes, can’t afford relatively inexpensive procedures like breast and cervical cancer screening.

This year asides for raising funds for women to be screened free of charge, we will also be raising funds to assist two women who already have cancer, and are financially unable to pay for their medication.”