The Jacinda Royale

Jacinda Manettas was thirty when we lost her to mucinous ovarian cancer. She was the loudest laugh in every room, the first on the dance floor and the last to leave, and she never once sat out a party.

So we are not holding a memorial. We are throwing the night she would have thrown.

The Jacinda Royale is a celebration of her life and a fundraiser in her name. Saturday 7 November at The Pillars, 11 Barrack Street, Sydney, from 6pm until late. You will be handed her signature cocktail, the Queen of Hearts, as you walk in. There is a poker tournament that runs in heats through the night and finishes at a final table, with a perpetual trophy that carries her name. There is a live auction, a silent auction and heaps of entertainment. There are canapes from The Pillars kitchen, speeches from the people who loved her most, and dancing until they turn the lights on.

Every dollar raised goes to the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation, directed to Professor Kylie Gorringe and her research into mucinous ovarian cancer. It is a rare cancer that receives almost no dedicated funding. That is what this night is for.

You do not need to have known her. If you knew her, you know why you should be there. If you did not, come anyway and find out. She would have wanted the room full, the music loud and the bar busy.

Dress code is cocktail. Dress like you mean it.