The insanely good reason to wear purple make-up today

In August this year, the world said goodbye to a truly wonderful, vivacious and special person. My friend Jess lost her mum, Rochelle, to a very long and hard battle to pancreatic cancer.

Jess (in the red dress) with her mum, sister and aunts

She fought the disease with amazing strength and tenacity, but after 16 months of fighting, she passed away surrounded by her family. It was incredibly sad and devastating for everyone who knew her.

But I’m not here to talk about how sad I am or about how hard each and every day is for Jess and her family. Those are givens.

Nope, today, on World Pancreatic Cancer Day, I want to do my bit – and encourage you to do yours – to raise awareness for the cancer that has the highest mortality of all major cancers. And when you consider that in 2014 there will be about 2890 Australians diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and less than 5 per cent of patients who reach the five-year survival mark, that’s far too many families who are losing someone so dear to them.

So here’s how you can help (and it doesn’t involve a single donation). The goal is to raise awareness and try to change the statistics, change the survival rate even. And you can do that by wearing a splash of purple today and uploading your picture to Instagram, Facebook and/or Twitter and using the hashtag #purpleourworld.

Because there’s nothing I’d love more than for you to get into the spirit and support this worthwhile cause, here are some purple-inspired looks for you to try today: