Hello and thank you. Thank you on behalf of the 1000 young women diagnosed with breast cancer this year and the thousands more across Australia who need support and connection. So much has happened over the past 12 months and every year when we launch our iconic fundraising calendar (this is our 8th!) I’m reminded how we are able to achieve such great things in a short amount of time because of the incredible generosity of our so brave volunteers, our pro-bono partners, our board and from wonderful people like yourselves who fundraise and buy our products in order for us to continue our mission.

We ARE changing the conversation for breast cancer and young women in Australia. This is an undeniable fact, and something that we continue to advocate for with the medical community and government alike. Our formalised Patient Advisory Group committee – Renee, Stefani, Sophie, Hanna, Larissa, Sarah and Veronica – first met in February, but were hard at work long before then, contributing to the National Cancer Plan, Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee submissions, pre-budget Submissions and working towards our five year strategic plan – 2023 our year of Awareness and we are excited to consolidate so much of what we’ve worked towards in 2024, our year of Community. 

Young women still face an incredibly difficult uphill battle when it comes to getting a diagnosis and in our just devastating survival outcomes. But there is a lot of hope, and a different future is at our fingertips. So Brave is honoured to continue working with BCAL Diagnostics, who are developing a first-of-its-kind blood test to detect breast cancer and officially opened their Sydney laboratories in May 2023. This will be an absolute game changer for young women, not just in Australia but across the world. Young women still cannot access any kind of screening unless they are identified as high risk, and are quite truthfully, monthly breast checks and breast awareness are still their best tool in the fight against breast cancer.  

We are also privileged to have the support of fabulous clinicians striving to challenge accepted norms and to introduce options for patients – thank you again to Dr Anne and Dr Ziv Peled, Dr Minas Chrysopoulo, A/Prof Cindy Mak and Dr Joe Dusseldorp for your leadership in resensation and sensation preserving mastectomies and sharing your valuable skills and knowledge with the community. 

We’ve continued to support young women through health information and connection – particularly through our webinar series, thank you again to all our health experts who’ve shared their expertise with our community from early menopause and genetic testing to navigating employment and boundaries – your advice and willingness to support young women in so very much appreciated. Thank you so much to Amy Pearn, Dr John Eden, Heidi Flaherty, Noa Rein, A/Prof Sanjay Warrier, A/Prof Cindy Mak and Dr Joe Dusseldorp for your time and sharing your incredible expertise! 

Breast awareness continues to fall at the heart of our mission and advocacy especially amongst high school and university aged women. This year we have been to more high schools across the country delivering our vital S.M.A.R.T. women are #breastaware workshops. We finally saw our So Brave Adventure All Stars fundraisers on our screens in September 2023 – thank you again Kim, Nicola, Angel, Tracy, Karina, Lisa, Gabby and Donelle and thank Karina and Angel for stepping up for the Legends Series – on our TV sets in 2024!  

We are so excited to launch our first ever podcast very soon – and a huge thank you to Jen Rowe for co-hosting this with me and to all our fabulous interviewees – ladies with lived-experience and experts in breast oncology. We can’t wait to launch ‘Honestly you are SO BRAVE’ in the coming weeks! 

Thank you again to our fabulous graphic designer Sharon Westin and Leigh Gadsby from our printing partner PrintCraft. You always do a fabulous job and have continued to support us year after year – thank you! 

I look forward to continuing to work with you towards a brighter future for young women with breast cancer. Lastly and certainly not least, thank YOU, our wonderful supporters, donors, sponsors and volunteers – thank you for purchasing our calendars, our shirts, making donations, running fundraisers and contributing financially to support our mission. Our mission is important, our mission is making a difference in young women’s lives.

thank you x Rachelle | Founder and Managing Director So Brave Ltd Australia’s Young Women’s Breast Cancer Charity 

Why the 2024 So Brave Calendar is special:

This year, we are proud to present our annual Calendar dedicated to young women who’ve had a profound effect on us – those who have a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, and those So Brave Ambassadors whose legacy we carry – Nyrie, Ria, Belinda, Jamilee, Neda and all their friends and families. 

We are so excited to share our 2024 Calendar with a focus on metastatic breast cancer in young women with you. We look forward to sharing our Legacy of Love collection of stories from young women facing metastatic breast cancer and their loved ones mid 2024. These resources, we hope will provide all women, but particularly young women with metastatic breast cancer in collaboration and their loved ones with the information, support and connection they need. 

More importantly, in consideration of the incredible efforts of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Roundtable, and the efforts of the Metastatic Action Group, Breast Cancer Network Australia and cancer registries across Australia, we hope that our contribution will help to change the existing issue with collecting data on metastatic breast cancer in Australia.

The impact of one person's lived-experience cannot be underestimated. The disproportionate impact of breast cancer on young women needs recognition - the gaps in diagnosis, treatment, support and survival that thousands of young women face, year on year. 

Young women's stories and those of the ones they've left behind deserve to be shared. Awareness around breast cancer in young women needs to be understood and issues of disparity for young women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer need to be resolved. It is well established that young women diagnosed with breast cancer have considerable difficulty navigating their diagnosis and treatment. For the disproportionately greater number of young women who are diagnosed with de novo or advance onto metastatic breast cancer, their needs are even greater.  

For us at So Brave, Australia’s only young women’s breast cancer charity, we believe the impact of breast cancer at a young age should not be tolerated.