A MOTHER and daughter from Barry have been invited to the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in recognition of their longstanding commitment to charity fundraising and community groups.
Carolyn Collard, 64, and her daughter Gemma, 41, will attend the Royal Garden Party on Wednesday, 7th May, where the King, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family are expected to be present.
The Royal Garden Party is usually held twice each year during the late spring, and it honours people from around the country who have made a significant contribution to their community in various ways.
Carolyn, known as Caca, organises her annual ‘Caca’s Breastfest’ where her friends and the local community gather in her back garden to raise money for Breast Cancer Now, and it has become her favourite day of the year.
The event is part of Breast Cancer Now’s long-running Afternoon Tea initiative, where thousands of people around the country stage similar gatherings to raise money for the charity.
Caca was inspired to host her first fundraiser in 2008 after losing a number of friends to the condition. Since then, Caca’s Breastfest has grown in popularity and this year they expect their all-time fundraising total to break the £50,000 barrier.
In the lead-up to the annual party, Caca tours the shops and cafes in Barry Island seeking donations for the raffle and auction, and by her own admission, her house gets taken over by items for her gathering.
The family spent much of the 1990s living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where Caca’s husband, Mike, worked as an aeronautical engineer for British Aerospace, and it was during this time that Gemma began to share her mother’s passion for fundraising and bringing people together: “My childhood was very different to most people’s, but growing up in Saudi Arabia was a tremendous privilege and it’s given me a set of life experiences that other people don’t have.
“I remember in late 1990, I would’ve been seven years old, my dad had moved to Saudi Arabia six months earlier because of his job and we were preparing to join him.
“I’d said goodbye to my friends in Barry and we made the journey to Dhahran. We’d only been there two weeks when my dad came home from work one day and explained to me that something big was happening. He said that the following day, we’d see it on the news, and my mum and I would be heading back to Britain again.
“Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait the previous summer and it was clear by that stage that the Gulf War was about to begin.
“Our passports hadn’t even been properly processed following our arrival, and now we were flying back. We ended up staying in Barry for another six months, and then, during the summer of 1991, we returned to Dhahran, and we lived there as a family for the following eight years.
“Women would come from across the district to our compound for the coffee mornings and bingo sessions that my mum hosted. She was always a great organiser of events, I was fortunate to receive a superb education at a private British academy, but I used to beg her for a day off school so I could help her.”
Gemma returned to Barry at the age of 15 and went to Bryn Hafren Comprehensive. She found the experience of returning home something of a culture shock: “There I was, at 15 years-of-age, coming back to Barry having spent much of my childhood in a very different culture.
“I had lots of confidence in terms of being able to navigate airports and go through the rigmarole of catching a plane, but I didn’t know how to cross the road or catch a bus to Cardiff. It was a real learning curve for me,” she said.
For the last two and a half years, Gemma has been running the Social Sisters group, which brings women of all ages together to have fun, learn new skills and help one another with their problems. Gemma says the group has been so successful that she has needed to restructure it to meet the levels of demand: “By the middle of last year, we had 65 women which was the maximum we could accommodate at our weekly meetings on Thursday evenings.
“We actually had a waiting list, and I set up a second weekly group in October to meet the demand.
“We’ve recently merged the two groups into one, where we have more than 100 members. We now meet at the function room at Jenner Park Stadium.
“The group has women aged between 27 and 91, and they come to Social Sisters for different reasons. If you want to dance and have fun, that’s great, if you want to sit and chat, that’s fine, too. We have a variety of guests, we do charitable things, we go to shows together.
“Breast Cancer Now is our charity for the time being, and we’ll continue to support them in the months ahead as my mum heads towards the £50,000 fundraising figure. After that, we have plans to support other good causes as well.
“Last month, for Valentine’s Day, we had a hen party, which everyone could attend without the pressure of getting married. There were people there who’d never been married or never had a hen party, and this was an event for them especially.
“At Social Sisters, we support and learn from each other. One of our youngest members doesn’t have a grandmother in her life, and one of our oldest members has become a grandmother figure to her, which is wonderful to see. They do a lot for each other and have a very close bond.”
With the Royal Garden Party just over a week away, Caca and Gemma are preparing for the big day. Gemma said: “My mum is very well prepared. She’s already bought her new dress and new hat, but I’m not so easy, I’m still thinking about what I’d like to wear.
“I’m grateful to the people who nominated us. You can only normally attend it once in a lifetime, so this will be a very special experience for us.
“The King normally speaks at the start of the party, and the guests will be split into lines. We’ve been told that each line will have the opportunity to meet at least one member of the Royal Family, but we don’t know who it’ll be yet. It’s all very exciting, I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful day, whatever the weather.”
Gemma paid tribute to both her parents and the impact they continue to have on her life: “There are no exclusive invites with me, in everything I do, everyone is welcome, and I get that from my wonderful mother. I’ve learnt so much from her, and she inspires me every day with her selflessness and the example she sets.
“My father is also a huge part of my life. He’s retired now and I’m grateful to him for the rich variety of experiences he’s enabled me to have. He’s also a very tolerant man, the way my parents’ house gets taken over with raffle prizes for Caca’s Breastfest really is very funny, but he knows it’s all for a good cause and he goes along with it,” she said.
Recently, Gemma spoke at a tea and coffee morning to mark International Women’s Day at Cemetery Approach Community Centre.
The event, organised by Barry Town Council, was free to attend, with all welcomed. It included music from Barry Ladies Choir along with short talks from inspiring local women.
Following a break for refreshments, Gemma delivered a 15-minute speech about Social Sisters.
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