This year the Saving Faces collection of paintings have been exhibited at a variety of medical conferences and fundraising events. The aim of the event on Saturday 28th April was to raise money and awareness of Saving Faces, using the artwork.
A young Saving Faces supporter, Felicity Skelton, ( first left in the photo), learned about the charity through her medical student friend, Chisom Emecheta. Chisom had already organised a number of successsful art events for Saving Faces and has recently qualified as a doctor. Much to our delight and lasting gratitude, Felicity decided to hold her birthday celebrations in a new art gallery in Hackney, London, The White Building, where she organised a masked ball and exhibition of Saving Faces’ artwork for her family and friends. Felicity raised over £500 at her event as well as introducing the charity to a new audience.
Below are a few of the comments from those who attended:
“The Saving Faces exhibition on 28th April was a wonderful graphic illustration of the complexities of patients with underlying head and neck pathologies. Although there was plenty of anecdotal evidence of good results from various treatments, as a medical oncologist , I am all too aware that more often than not patients with head and neck cancers especially have poor outcomes. As such I believe that the work of Saving Faces is truly invaluable highlighting the complex issues surrounding these diseases which threaten our perceptions of normality. I believe it is important to understand not only the physical suffering that these patients undergo but the tremendous emotional and psychological morbidities which are associated with such illness.”
“The art on the walls moved me because of the bravery in the faces – a testament to the human spirit can prevailing against this kind of misfortune… but it’s good to know that they are not facing it alone. It really made me want to do something to help them. I’m sure it did a lot to raise awareness; I’m really impressed with the initiative to detect mouth cancer earlier and I can see that this would make a big difference. During the evening a lot of people were wearing masks and then removing them and I think this presented a nice analogy – that we should remove our prejudices and preconceptions of people with facial disfigurements and see the whole person.”