Dress for Success launches International Women’s Day annual fundraiser to help more women

Joining Dress for Success was a turning point for Vanessa Hayes after years of battling breast cancer and surviving an abusive relationship.

Ms Hayes desperately needed a job after exhausting her funds while battling breast cancer but the domestic violence she had suffered for years had left her broken.

“I left my husband because of domestic violence and five weeks later I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said.

“I learned a lot about myself at that time. I didn’t realise how broken I was as a person because I was very good at helping others but never helping myself.

“You don’t realise that someone can break you down to a point of being that broken.”

She said going to Dress for Success workshops — a charity that empowers women to gain economic independence with work attire and job support mentoring — gave her the confidence to re-enter the workforce.

After attending workshops and volunteering with the organisation, Ms Hayes got a job at Centrelink before moving to administration at Electrical Group Training.

“When people hear my story of what I’ve been through they say I’m strong. I never saw myself as a strong person. It was just a matter of survival,” she said.

“I had a photo on my fridge for a long time of a period in my life that I absolutely loved before I was married and had children and how good my life was so I stuck that picture back up on the fridge and every time I’d have a down day I’d look at that and I’d go, ‘that’s how I’m gonna end up being back as that person there’.

“I can be very critical of myself and now I can actually take time and stop and look at myself and go ‘wow, look at what I’ve achieved’.”

Women like Ms Hayes are now attending the Subiaco-based charity more than ever before as they continue to bear the brunt of the cost-of-living and housing crises.