Couture fashion captured the eyes (including jewelry by ‘You’ve Got Hattitude,’ seen above), but lending help to Cystic Fibrosis sufferers dominated the evening at the Couture Fashion for a Cure Found fundraiser at the Glen?Eagle Golf Club on August 26. Matthew Strader photo Lay down, stop breathing, take out two major organs, have them replaced, recover, exercise, breathe, vomit, learn to walk again, see through the fog of medication, exercise, breathe, vomit, strain to make your muscles work, breathe, exercise, vomit, stand up, breathe….
Okay?
Now found a fashion show fundraiser for 350 people.
Hattie Dunstan did. And with the help of her friends and family, the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation is $30,412.69 richer.
“This evening was started by allowing ourselves to dream,” Kim Alderdice, friend to Dunstan and director of the fashion show told the crowd of onlookers at the Couture Fashion For a Cure Found (CFforCF) show on August 26 at Glen Eagle Golf Club. “The creation of this event was built on Hattie imagining she could do something to help Cystic Fibrosis research in Canada, knowing her friends would be willing to help and support her, and like any fashionista, she wanted to produce her very own fashion show.” Dunstan said the idea for the fashion show began, like many other ideas, through a little copying.
“I participated in another fashion show fundraiser in March,” she said. “What a great opportunity to raise funds and awareness about CF and also do something I love… fashion.”
She said she had no idea what was about to happen. That she wasn’t aware the friends and family she inspired would be so dedicated to building success through their generosity and commitment. The first paragraph of this story is not simply for artistic effect. In essence, it’s a day in the life of a 22-year-old Caledon girl who had to endure a double lung transplant in order to survive CF. She did.
The operation was a success, Dunstan was given the gift of life on July 5, and now fashions the hope that her inspiration and her friends and families efforts will tackle the problems another CF sufferer might face before they have to suffer them.
“Here’s to new lungs, to fashion, to donors, to designers, to the community and beyond, to doctors, to science, to new styles and clothing trends, to the selfless people who made this all happen,” Dunstan wrote in her founders note.
This summer has seen her foundation, dubbed “Hattie’s Crew” by The Enterprise, put on a fundraising raffle, market booths, flower sales, bottle drives and the culmination, the CFforCF show, raising the aforementioned $30,000 and increasing awareness about organ donation and CF through smiles, information packages, and genuine care.
They involved an entire community in their cause.
And the community responded in spades.
All they say now is thank you.
Thank you to their premier, and executive sponsors. The businesses that lent support that without they would not have been able to complete their goals. The Kinsmen for volunteer efforts. The eight local fashion houses that donated clothing for the runway. And, to Scotia Bank volunteers who helped with their silent auction and raffle, and will donate their own cheque of $5,000 to the cause after a promise to match figures raised up to $5,000.
But most of all, they need to mention and thank the entire crew.
Hattie Dunstan (founder and inspiration), Kim Alderdice (director and co-ordinator), Rachael Grice (events co-ordinator), Lindsay Bishop (media/program design), Nikki Bettinelli (graphic designer), KC Heenan (MC and store liaison), Brittany Bolton (backstage manager), Kyla Zanardi (local media liaison), Steph Bertolin (sponsor liaison), Nicole Mcginn (stylist), Lauren Wak (decorator), Katherine McCool, Tasha Potter, Carly Gordon, Natasha Sicondolfo and Danielle Venditello.
For now, Dunstan will keep exercising, keep working her body to get used to her new lungs, and keep designing.
She’s also still dreaming.
“It’s just an idea,” she said. “But we thought because it’s so expensive after transplant, and a lot of people come from out of province and they need a place to stay that we need an apartment building downtown for transplant patients.
Equipped with subsidized apartments, information and resources, the dream for the building is a place for those who don’t need to occupy the time they need to spend healing doing research just to have a place to stay.
“We just want to help those families out. We found (during her own ordeal) there wasn’t a resource person, luckily my mom doesn’t work so she could do it all herself. But we want something in place to help those families.”
You can view the “Summer for Hattie” video on the website www.cfforcf.com and the video of the fashion show will be posted in early September.
And if your eye is drawn by continued stories of courage, humour and inspiration, follow Dunstan’s own blog at: icecreammaplesyrup.blogspot.com.
Hattie Dunstan poses with good friend Kim Alderdice on the patio of a family friend’s condo in downtown Toronto. Dunstan is recovering from a double lung transplant she endured on Monday, July 5. Matthew Strader photoEvery now and then someone can change another person’s life. Sometimes they inspire. Sometimes they educate. Sometimes, they don’t even try.
And the ever-growing story of Hattie Dunstan is one of those ever-growing circuses of life-changing moments – and all this Caledon girl is trying to do is take one long walk on the beach.
Dunstan is a Cystic Fibrosis sufferer recovering at a friend’s condo in downtown Toronto from a double lung transplant performed on?July 5.
This diminutive, and yet formidable Caledon resident has faced a medical challenge this summer that could topple any character, and through it all, she has maintained.
Her unbreakable spirit, her passion for life, permeates everything she does, every word she speaks, and every person she keeps in her life.
So overwhelming is the love that she has nurtured with her family and friends during her 22 years, that her trial has turned into their mission.
‘The Summer for Hattie’ has become a town-wide push for Cystic Fibrosis fundraising and organ donation awareness that has seen groups of 20-50 friends and family get together for bottle drives, car washes, mock-fashion events, flower sales and the piece de resistance… ‘The Couture Fashion For a Cure Found’ show that will happen tonight, August 26, at the Glen Eagle Golf Club.
For The Enterprise, it began with two girls in the lobby.
Kim Alderdice and Rachael Grice made an appearance asking for coverage of their first event, ‘The Mainstreet Strut’. A mock fashion show and auction that saw them turn a downtown Bolton location into a raucous mix of firemen being auctioned off for yard work, and friends taking to the stage to strut in silly costumes and entertain a boisterous crowd. Both of the girls admitted openly that they didn’t know what they were doing, just that they had a friend named Hattie who had inspired them to try.
It is only three months later and Alderdice is a model of organization and co-ordination. Grice is an experienced MC and host. The group of girls working with them is a well-oiled machine that has not only put on the events they imagined, but surpassed their own, and anyone else’s expectations with their success.
‘The Mainstreet Strut’ raised $4,604.93 for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Their two charity car washes have raised $770.39, and $600.75.
A recent bottle drive pulled in, in excess of $1,000.
And flower sales are topping the $500 mark.
Hattie’s crew has gone from a group of rookies, to seasoned philanthropic veterans.
And still, talk to any of them and it remains about one thing. It is for one thing. It is because of one thing.
“It’s because of Hattie,” Alderdice told The Enterprise. “It isn’t even because she’s suffering from this disease. It’s because she’s an important part of all of our lives.”
Dunstan spoke to The Enterprise from a condo in downtown Toronto where she continues her recovery.
She is a shell of the girl seen in pictures as her body has atrophied from her weeks in intensive care to the point that she now works every day to rebuild the muscle structure she lost.
And yet, spend an hour with her and you will feel nothing short of meek in her presence. She is the embodiment of the potential of the human spirit. And a life-changing example of what real strength is made of.
And, without a doubt, you’re also going to join her in a good laugh.
“I’m so messed up,” she jokes, while rubbing at her temples. “The drugs are so strong. Last week I couldn’t hold a conversation.”
“She just kept apologizing,” chimed in Alderdice. “It was pretty funny.”
Dunstan’s journey has been a roller coaster of ups and downs through a fog she can’t control.
Her downs began approximately a week before her transplant, when her own lungs started to succumb to her disease. Her lung function fell to drastic levels of just over 10 per cent.
“It was really scary,” she said.
Placed on the rapidly deteriorating organ donation list, her personal blog became a macabre story of fear, confusion, impatience, frustration, and, through it all, strength.
At two in the morning one fateful night, she got the call.
Lungs were only 40 minutes away.
And her coaster climbed up.
The week after the surgery, she doesn’t remember. The drugs were too strong.
Today, she struggles to focus. She works hard to rebuild the body she’s not so sure is hers anymore.
“It feels like someone took my brain and put it into someone else’s body. Like this isn’t mine anymore,” she said, her hands waving over her torso. “But I know I just have to keep working. Build up my strength, and it will be mine again.”
For now, tests are showing that she has stopped growing bacteria in her lungs. Her lung function is at 40 per cent and climbing. Her daily frustrations bring her down, and then the realization of the benchmarks she is passing bring her back up.
She is slowly working toward a full recovery that will lead her to the goal of walking the beach at her cottage.
And without knowing it, she is changing lives everyday.
This reporter went for what should have been a very routine run during the evening after a visit with Dunstan.
A pause at a trail bridge, a deep breath in and a gratitude for the simplest of things never felt before changed all of that.
There is only one person to thank for that.
You can thank her too. All you have to do is spend $40 on a fashion show ticket you won’t regret and spend an evening with a dedicated group of girls trying desperately to make sure nobody else has to go through what their friend has gone through.
For more information on the event, or how to donate visit: www.cfforcf.com.
Follow Hattie’s journey at www.icecreammaplesyrup.blogspot.com.
And find out about organ donation information at: www.giftoflife.on.ca.
So we did it...we made it! Monday is clinic, next week is back to the physio room for three months to build up strength...and yesterday is the beginning of my new life.
heres me a few days ago, while visiting the condo on my day pass!
Not too much to report today. H still remains on the vent, with no talks on when they will extubate her again.
She spent most of today sedated, but they are hoping to reduce sedation tomorrow so she can start communicating.
Today the surgeons also ordered a CT scan and the infectious disease team stopped by for a review--they are hoping to get to the bottom of this so she can get back on track.
Yesterday she was hit with a lot of anti-rejection drugs, antibiotics and steroids to try to control whatever is holding her back, which is probably what made her so anxious and paranoid.
The good news (we always end with this) is that her sodium issues have finally been resolved. The pieces of the puzzle are slowly coming together.
Hoping to figure this setback out soon!
- Lindsay
