Children's Hospice South West, Dorothy House Hospice Care and We Get It are hosting the second annual Strength in Style Fashion Show at the Bath Assembly Rooms this September, returning with a fusion of fashion and compassion.

The event was a huge success in 2023 and returning in 2024 even bigger and better, showcasing Bath based independent retailers as well as sustainable fashion and raising vital funds for the charities involved.

The 2024 event will be returning to the Assembly Rooms in Bath on Thursday 26^th September, with even more models and fashion than last year.

Strength in Style's reach goes far beyond fashion; it profiled three local charities, empowered individuals, highlighted local businesses, and promoted sustainability. Moreover, by its collaborative nature, it united different sectors of the local community and showed how powerful we can be when we work together with others for a common aim. Strength in Style exemplified the spirit of community, compassion, and creativity, leaving a lasting impact on all those involved.

One of the most inspiring aspects of Strength in Style was the choice of models. Rather than relying on professional models, the team have invited members of the cancer community, nurses and siblings from the Children's Hospice South West and staff and Ambassadors from Dorothy House Hospice to take the spotlight. This empowered those living with cancer and other life-limiting conditions and showed the strength and resilience of the individuals within these communities.

Strength in Style are partnering with local independent fashion retailers rather than the big chain stores as they want to showcase the unique fashion offering which exists within the city, and to support local businesses. The retailers - Blue, BoHo, Grace and Mabel and Portman, are excited to be involved.

One of the sets in the show will focus on sustainable fashion with clothes sourced from local Dorothy House and Children's Hospice South West charity shops. This way of shopping reduces waste and lessens the load on landfill while supporting our local charity shops and encouraging others to use them. And this sustainable set is also a fun way of challenging the notion that fashion has to be new and expensive. Highlighting the potential for unique and stylish fashion finds in charity shops showcases a creative way of marrying style with sustainability.

Supporting 3 local charities

Children's Hospice South West

 Children's Hospice South West (CHSW) was founded by Eddie and Jill Farwell who had two children with a genetic disorder which was life limiting. It exists to make the most of the lives of children and young people living with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, which means they are likely to die in childhood.

Their belief is that the best way to do this is to wrap their care around families who have received this devastating news. They journey with all family members from the point of diagnosis until the death of their child and into bereavement and beyond. They offer resilience stays, emergency, palliative, and end of life care. 

These quotes from families encapsulate the difference the charity makes through caring for the whole family:

"Thank you once again for a relaxing stay, my room was so warm and comfortable. I slept brilliantly. Home today with batteries recharged! It was a wonderful, family time."

"Hospice staff are able to talk to parents, giving understanding, space and time that simply wouldn't be available at a hospital. It's a resource which is unique and impossible to overvalue."

 BaNES' local children's hospice, Charlton Farm is now looking after over 200 families in the local area. CHSW only gets between 10-11% of government funding, and so need to raise over £12 million to operate the 3 hospices in the South West.

 Strength in Style fashion show 2023, raised awareness, and it had a huge impact on the users of CHSW who modelled. It really boosted the confidence of the siblings involved.

 Dorothy House Hospice Care

 Their mission at the Hospice is to ensure that everyone has access to outstanding palliative and end of life care, and they cannot do our vital work without the support of our community.

 This is now more important than ever as they have seen a significant increase in the number of patients, families and carers that need their support. This includes across the Inpatient Unit, Community Services, Day Patient Teams and Bereavement Support Team.

It costs around £16 million pounds to run Dorothy House Hospice Care each year and only around 30% of that comes from the NHS, and so they must fundraise for the remaining amount.

It costs £945 to fund 24 hours of patient care in our Inpatient Unit at the Hospice just outside Bath in Winsley.

 We Get It

 We Get It is on a mission to ensure people living with cancer don't have to do so alone.

We Get It was founded and is run by people who have been affected by cancer and so they know what it's like to experience the roller coaster of emotions, the highs, the lows, the feeling afraid, the "new normal".

And it is this lived experience our We Get It community tells us is they need most outside of the medical treatment; they value the honesty and the ability to share with others who "get it."

They run regular drop-in events, workshops, courses, socials, and we welcome people affected by any cancer, any stage, as well as their friends and families.

We Get It sees the value of collaborating with other cancer charities as this enables us to signpost our community to the right group at the right time. It also enables us to share resources and best practice. Which is why Strength In Style was created, to enable us all to raise the profile of these much-needed charities and to show how, when working together, funds can be raised to support more people with cancer.

Without We Get It, the community would not have access to such a vibrant and supportive group and would struggle to find the non-medical help they need, delivered in a welcoming, non-clinical setting.

And yet, they receive no statutory funding and are therefore entirely reliant on the generosity of their fundraisers, donors and sponsors to continue to provide our support.

"Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to try rowing. I never believed I would be able to do something like that and to have the video evidence of rowing 2kms up the river is something I will treasure forever. When my cancer came back two years ago it really felt like the end of the world but joining We Get It and making friends, having fun and having the chance to do things like this has made me realise that I can do anything and I came away on Sunday feeling two inches taller and very proud of myself. It was a personal challenge and the kindness, understanding and encouragement from everyone was just wonderful. Thank you so much for everything you all do and thank you for bringing us together and helping me to realise I can do anything."

Event details

Tickets are on sale now, from £35 and can be purchased here. Get your tickets early as last year's event sold out.