Young Cancer Patient to Benefit from Proceeds of Miss Nannyville Beauty Pageant

Thirteen-year-old cancer patient, Dillon Williams, is to benefit from the proceeds of the Mini Miss and Miss Nannyville Beauty Pageant, to be held at the Sir Howard Cooke Community Centre in Kingston, on Sunday, August 25, beginning  at 5:30 p.m.

Organised by the Nannyville Youth Uprising Action Club, the beauty pageant will be held under the theme: ‘Beauty with a Purpose’.

Chairperson of the Special Fund-raising and Events Committee of the Youth Club, Bianca Fagan, told JIS News that “the organisation chose to donate the proceeds of the pageant to Dillon who resides in the community and is ailing from a rare form of cancer, known as Pineal Germ Cell Tumour.”

Meanwhile, Social Marketing Co-ordinator at the Citizen Security and Justice Programme (CSJP), Patrice Tomlinson, said that prizes will be given that will enhance the educational advancement of contestants.

“We have decided to endorse the pageant because it is an effective way of engaging our target audience,” Ms. Tomlinson said, while noting that “the CSJP will support the initiative because it promotes positive thinking and behaviours.”

Ms. Tomlinson said the CSJP is pleased to partner with the Nannyville Youth Uprising Action Club.

“We are proud of the youth committee’s commitment to actually implement skills honed through the CSJP’s myriad of capacity-building initiatives,” she said, noting that this augers well for youth empowerment and sustainability.

The Co-ordinator emphasised that “our mandate is to work with at-risk youth through the implementation of social intervention programmes, in an effort to promote a crime-free Jamaica.”

A social intervention programme of the Ministry of National Security, the CSJP currently serves 50 communities, across 8 parishes in Jamaica.

Meanwhile, Ms. Fagan said Dillon, who is in the 8th grade, is currently in critical condition at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). Dillon is awaiting much needed treatment which cost $2 million.

The cost of the ticket for the pageant is $150 pre-sold and $200 at the gate, while children under 12 years will pay $100 for admission.

Ms. Fagan is appealing to Jamaicans to assist by attending the event, or making contributions in whatever way possible.

President of the Nannyville Youth Uprising Action Club, Sasha-Kay Godfrey, told JIS News that the pageant is being held to give the participants exposure, to build their awareness of issues, as well as to help them to understand the importance of combining outer beauty with inner beauty.

“The pageant is geared towards lifting the self-esteem of the youth, particularly the young girls in the community,” Ms. Godfrey said.

She added that their participation in the contest has given them much-needed exposure and training, in preparation for the finals.

Additionally, the pageant comes at an opportune time, and is in keeping with a recent encouragement from the Minister of Youth and Culture, Hon. Lisa Hanna, who has implored persons, particularly the youth, to correct the misguided concept of beauty that currently pervades the society.