Well it's taken us nearly a week to calm down, rest our feet, and generally recover from the wonderful day we all enjoyed last Thursday (20th May) at the various Buy My Dress events around the county. €60,000 was raised from the three events, which took place in Dublin, Cork and Galway. This amount of money means a lot to a small charity like ours. With the funds raised Down Syndrome Centre are able to continue to support Ireland's first Down Syndrome Liaison Nurse, Angela O'Riordan and look to fund sumiliar nursing positions in Cork and Galway.

There was great excitement in all three venues on the day when the doors opened to the waiting crowds which had gathered. In the Royal College of Physician's in Dublin, stylist Cathy O'Connor was on hand to advise customers on which bargains best suited their look. In Cork the event was opened by Lady Mayoress, Tanya Murphy - a very stylish lady herself! And what with the main auditorium being the venue in the Cork School of Music a number of the music students added greatly to the atmosphere by playing their instuments, which I'm sure helped calm the shoppers in their search for the brand new Joanne Hynes dress which had been donated! In the ballroom of the Meyrick Hotel, Eyre Square, Galway customers were delighted to see fashion writer Triona McCarthy helping out.

The ladies behind Jo Magedalena Jewellrey very kindly donated numerous products from their brochures to all three events, which became prizes at our Lucky Dip tables - this alone brought in over €500!

However our biggest supporters on the day were the many, many kind and generous people who donated their time to work at the event. Over 100 people from all backgrounds, some with lots of retail experience and some who just wanted to try something new for the day, helped us out at the three events. For all your help ladies (and the few men!) we'd like to say a very big thank you. The day would not have been possible without you!

Before the events kicked off, we had counted over 4,000 dresses which had been donated. Even more arrived on the day. While sales at all three venues were brisk thoughout the day a lot of very nice dresses were left behind. Maybe the glorious weather on the day put people off buying little black cocktail dresses. We have a plan though ladies for all these lovely dresses - our website, www.buymydress.ie will be further developed, to include an on-line shop, where all the dresses will be photographed, categorised and priced - and as always the full price of each dress will come straight to Down Syndrome Centre. So, what do you think? We're hoping all of you busy ladies will be checking out the site whenever the need for a new dress arises! And who knows, maybe even another real life pop-up shop will hit the streets before Christmas - when every girl out there needs a new frock!

There are so many people to thank, suppliers, companies who organised workplace collection points, the various credit unions around the country, the many Unislim classes, our sponsors Kellogg's Special K and Peter Mark and of course all of the ladies countrywide who donated your pre-loved dresses. We've started the process of getting in touch with you all to say Thank You - but until we get around to you, or if you didn't leave your name when you donated, please accept this note as thanks!