My Story

I am dual British / American citizen. I have lived in Los Angeles, California for the past 12 years but originally hail from England where my family still resides. I started ‘For Our Cause’ in honor of my late father, Douglas Smith.  My father’s life was shattered by a massive stroke in December 2007.  From the time he went into hospital my family’s life was altered.  Apart from a brief seven weeks back home during 2008, my father spent his last eleven months in hospitals and a nursing home for dementia patients, dementia being an offset of the stroke, until his death on October 29th 2008.

I spent a lot of time in stroke units reading literature pertaining to the illness.  It came to my attention that stroke research in the U.K. was highly underfunded and I set about trying to help change the situation.

Following the lead of the original Calendar Girls from Yorkshire who raised a tremendous amount of money for Leukemia Research, I thought the idea of a calendar was a splendid fund raising concept.  However, I happened upon the idea of not just reaching out to one charity, but to twelve – one charity for each month of the year.

I reached out to friends and acquaintances, real women whose lives had been altered by a close and personal situation that filled them with enough passion to want to make a difference. 

With a lot planning and the help of my dear friend and the calendar photographer, Catalina Martone, we jumped straight in at the deep end.  Bringing with us super stylist, Heather Sladinski, marvelous make up girl, Katy Holland and happy hair by Viv Brik and Kat Gold we pulled together 2 full and hectic weekends of photo shoots with our girls.

The end result is the beautiful calendar you see on this website.  Everybody who worked on this project poured their heart and soul into it.  Each of the 12 causes are important and life changing.  Even if you or someone you know has only been affected by one of the charities we are representing, please understand that your purchase will not only make a difference to your chosen cause but to ELEVEN others. 

This project is unique and it is my dream to help change a lot of lives.  It’s time to step forward and make a stand for what you believe in.  The women who took part in this calendar did just that.  Please help us to realize our goals and make a difference.

For Our Cause – The Future

It is my dream that For Our Cause will help charities and foundations design creative concepts for fundraising.   If you have a charity, foundation or idea that you would like to raise funds for, please do not hesitate to contact me and I’d love to sit down and talk to you.

Many thanks and please enjoy your calendar.
Jacqui Smith – In Honor of My Dad, Doug Smith x
Email: ForOurCause@gmail.com