Prim Perfect’s Cakes Against Cancer 2018 – for Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan Cancer Support is the UK’s leading charity offering support for people with cancer and the Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event, where they ask people across the UK to hold a coffee morning and raise money for people living  with cancer. People bake cakes to sell at coffee mornings that they host at their homes, their places of work, their schools, colleges and universities … In 2017, Macmillan Coffee Mornings raised an amazing £27 million.

In Second Life, people can organise coffee mornings too to support this.

~~~ What is The Biggest Coffee Morning in the World? ~~~
The coffee morning is Macmillan Cancer Support’s biggest fundraising event, where they ask people across the UK to hold a coffee morning and raise money for people living with cancer. In 2016, they raised an amazing £29.5 million. In the UK, people bake cakes to sell at coffee mornings that they host at their homes, their places of work, their schools, colleges and universities …

And here in Second Life, people organise coffee mornings too.

Since 2013, we have held a very special coffee morning at Prim Perfect, where we have raised over £740.00 (over US$970) through the sale of virtual cake – and we will be doing it again this year.

This year, we’ll be joined again by the wonderful Second Life Cheerleaders, who will be holding a virtual bake sale on their region! Watch this blog for full details.

~~~ How do you sell virtual cake? ~~~
Well, we think our virtual cake was rather good value! We ask people to give us their favourite cake recipe, and put it inside a virtual cake. Then when someone buys the virtual cake, they receive a real recipe – so they really have whole cakes, that they can make over and over again – and there are a lot of really delicious cakes to try!

All the money we raise from cakes and donations goes to an avatar we have created especially for the event – Macmillan CoffeeMorning (with a registered name of CoffeeMorning Resident). You can also send her cakes and/or recipes – she’ll add them to our bake sales!

People who host their own event can also donate to our Just Giving page or directly to Macmillan Cancer Support: https://www.justgiving.com/PrimPerfectCakeAgainstCancer2018

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

~~~ About Macmillan Cancer Support UK ~~~
Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer.

As well as helping with the medical needs of people affected by cancer, Macmillan also looks at the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have, and campaigns for better cancer care. Macmillan Cancer Support’s goal is to reach and improve the lives of everyone living with cancer in the UK.

The charity was founded in 1911 as the Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, by Douglas Macmillan following the death of his father from the disease. From 5 April 2006, Macmillan Cancer Relief became known as Macmillan Cancer Support, as this more accurately describes its role in supporting people living with cancer. It has adopted the principles of being a “source of support” and a “force for change”.

Macmillan works in partnership with other cancer research organisations and is a partner of the National Cancer Research Institute.

~~~ What Macmillan means for people with cancer ~~~
A long term resident of Caledon in Second Life, Mr Alastair Whybrow, found Macmillan Cancer Support invaluable. Before he died, in December 2014, he gave me permission to quote from our conversation.

He said: “I’ve had a great deal of involvement with the MacMillan organisation lately, and they’ve been absolutely marvellous, so I’m heartened to think that my friends here have managed to give something back in return … I’m not overdramatising but it is not a small thing. The role and capabilities of the MacMillan organisation are easy to underestimate, as I myself did. They continue to surprise me with the realistic, practical help that can be given and are almost entirely responsible for my own course of pain management, which has involved a course of radio at Mount Vernon, amongst other things. And from my point of view, I’ve found it to be no exaggeration that the sheer goodwill from others really has helped, even when hospitals, tests and medications fall short. It really has been quite sobering, and moving, to experience for oneself how much difference it makes to one’s own attitude simply knowing that others are out there caring in their own way.

“MacMillan have done things that have surprised me. Clinical dosage (thanks to them my painkillers are now starting to work), organising treatment (especially where the NHS is dragging its heels) and help with benefits – not to mention their counselling … The amazing thing to me is that they ARE a charity! I’m not entirely sure how the organisation itself slots into the NHS but they seem to work with it as a semi-autonomous part of it. And yes, the NHS is paying for these things but it’s MacMillan who got it all organised so quickly, even down to helping me organise the transport; there’s no way I can drive to Mount Vernon like this. Their main role administratively seems to be pointing one in the right direction but things are so complicated that that on its own is a big help, and there are people who can’t handle admin very well, they’re happy to stand over your shoulder … Another factor which some’d find helpful is state benefits. MacM are very au fait with what’s available and how to get it. If a hospital visit’s costing £10 in taxis each time, that becomes very helpful.

“They look at the whole picture of how cancer affects not just you but your family too. They’re happy to speak to your family individually, according to what everyone wants. They don’t just leave you to pass on bad news. I’m lucky in that my family and I discuss everything without holding back, but it’s a comfort to know that McM are there as impartial ears.”

He also added: “What I would be glad to see is more men having themselves examined as a precaution – especially men over 50. Prostate cancer is cunning and can lurk for years before ballooning out. If my own example can persuade one person to get themselves diagnosed in time, then I’ll be very pleased.”