A Bake Off with boobs at the forefront

Oa Hackett is the founder of breast cancer charity, Little Lifts, which celebrates its fifth birthday this month. To mark the occasion, the charity has just launched The Boobie Bake-Off, with more than a little bit of the help from Richard Hughes, Chef Director at The Assembly House

On the heels of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, East Anglian-based breast cancer charity, Little Lifts, has launched its answer to The Great British Bake Off. Little Lifts’ latest fundraiser, The Boobie Bake-Off is a way for people in the region to celebrate the charity’s fifth birthday coming up on November 23, whilst also raising funds for those impacted by breast cancer in East Anglia.

Little Lifts was launched in 2017 by Founder Oa Hackett, who at age 28, was diagnosed with primary breast cancer. Leading up to and during her chemotherapy treatment, Oa was fortunate to have a support network of friends and family to help her along the way, many of whom lifted those down days with a few little treats to relieve some of the side effects she experienced. The impact these small tokens had on Oa’s wellbeing was huge, and so the concept of Little Lifts was born.

Little Lifts, based just outside of Norwich, provides thoughtfully crafted boxes containing specially selected items to help alleviate some of the physical side effects that some may experience but to also support emotionally those facing chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment. Over the past five years, the charity has grown by leaps and bounds. It started providing its services to the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and five years later the charity now supports all the nine major hospitals in East Anglia.

Oa says of The Boobie Bake-Off birthday fundraiser: ‘Given the challenges our community faced during the pandemic, we’re delighted to be celebrating this momentous milestone. It’s been an absolute pleasure to support so many people with breast cancer in our county and beyond. Very soon we will reach our 10,000^th Box – it’s just incredible to know we’ve provided support to so many people and their families affected by breast cancer. Birthdays are all about cake, which is why we’ve launched The Boobie Bake-Off, a celebratory fundraiser which we hope will help us to support even more people in our region.’

To kickstart the fundraiser, Chef Director Richard Hughes and his team at The Assembly House in Norwich baked a selection of ‘Boobie Bakes’ to inspire would-be bakers to get abreast of the baking challenge. 

Richard says: ‘We’ve embraced lots of themes for our afternoon teas over the years from Rainbow Unicorns to Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz to the Circus but we’ve never been asked to bake a batch of boobie bakes! Mark and Julia in our pastry team were delighted to help launch this great fundraising idea for Little Lifts, which is a charity very close to our hearts. We hope that everyone will join in and create something fun and delicious that will help those living with or impacted by breast cancer.’

Little Lifts is inviting the general public, coffee shops and eateries around the region to take part in the month-long fundraiser which will run between November 1-30, 2022. The idea is simple – to bake and sell a selection of boobie cupcakes, a cleavage cake or any other kind boobie baked treat and then donate proceeds to support the good work of Little Lifts.

Oa adds: ‘Boob health is extremely important and we want to normalise checking breasts and pecs of all shapes and sizes, and in addition to that, raise awareness of the ways women and men can manage their symptoms during treatment. Creating boob-themed cakes will hopefully be a fun way to draw attention to breast cancer while raising funds to support more people in our region.’

To join The Boobie Bake Off visit www.littlelifts.org.uk/the-boobie-bake-off. Bake sales can commence any time during November 2022.  People are being encouraged to capture their experience, take some pictures and tag Little Lifts @littlelifts_uk on either Instagram, Twitter of Facebook #LittleLiftsBoobieBakeOff. Little Lifts 5th birthday party is on November 18 at a ticketed event at Gonzo Tea Rooms in Norwich.