The Debbie Baldwin Gala - Debbie and Prav's Story

In June 2025, Ovacome will be hosting the fourth annual Debbie Baldwin Gala, a fundraising event created in memory of a remarkable woman to support Ovacome and those living with ovarian cancer.

The event was initially envisioned by Debbie herself, who shared the experiences she’d had with ovarian cancer with Ovacome back in 2020. Debbie was determined to raise as much awareness of ovarian cancer as she possibly could, undertaking various fundraising activities all while facing her own diagnosis.

Sadly, Debbie passed away in 2021, but her husband Prav - alongside a host of family and friends, managed to organise and host the first Debbie Baldwin Gala with Ovacome in March of 2022.

As we approach the fourth annual gala in June, we wanted to hear from those who knew Debbie best and highlight just how special and important this event has been for those closest to her.

We spoke to Debbie’s husband Prav, who takes us through why the event is so important to him.

“The gala is everything to me. Deb had created a vision in early 2021 of organising an annual gala event to assist Ovacome in providing awareness and generating funds to support their excellent work. Her real focus was on awareness as an invaluable tool to combat the avoidable progression of the disease."

"She had discussed this idea with Ovacome and was putting a high-level plan together with friends and family. Deb did all this while going through a drug trial at the Royal Marsden, but this did not reduce her focus, passion and enthusiasm to get this moving forward - which was typical for Deb.

Unfortunately, she could not realise her dream as she lost her battle with ovarian cancer in September that year. I wanted to make sure that her legacy and vision was realised and put into action the organisation of the first gala in March 2022, of course with assistance from family and amazing friends! It was a huge success and really galvanised our group into understanding and advocating for the charity.

It was amazing the number of people who commented that they hadn’t experienced an event of pure love, support, understanding, fun and laughter. The important aspect for me is that this is for Deb who was a selfless person who worked tirelessly to help family, friends and the community with her volunteering. It would not be the success it is still today if it wasn’t for the positive impact she had on the world."

Since that first gala - Prav, with the amazing support of family and friends, has subsequently organised the event each year, continuing to raise awareness and money to support those living with ovarian cancer, all while honouring Debbie’s memory. Prav has also participated in a host of other fundraising activities, including climbing to Everest’s base camp alongside some close friends, raising over £3000 for Ovacome’s Support Services.

If you’d like to make a donation, as well as find out more about Debbie’s legacy, you can visit her in memoriam fundraising page here: https://www.ovacome.org.uk/fundraisers/debbie-baldwin