When fashion designer Tamia Carey started her Shoes for Souls initiative, she wanted it to be driven by purpose. 

According to the multi-talented creative, Shoes for Souls pairs are specially created footwear with a worthy cause. With October being recognised as Breast Cancer Awareness month, the brand decided to honour a survivor. They zoned in on marketing and public relations consultant, Tara Playfair-Scott.

The Tara Playfair-Scott Sandals is a limited edition hot-pink gladiator-style strap sandals that have been available for pre-order since the start of the month at the cost of $7,500 per pair.

Moved by Tamia Carey’s decision to create a sandal in her honour, Playfair-Scott told the OBSERVER ONLINE that she immediately thought of a way to make the tribute about more than just herself.

“When Tamia reached out I was very moved. I felt honoured and I thought it was a very sweet thing to do and I immediately thought it was a great idea to help raise funds for women who may not be able to afford mammograms or services at the Jamaica Cancer Society. I thought it would be a nice idea to turn the tribute into some kind of giveback,” she said.

As such, part proceeds from the sale of the Tara Playfair-Scott Sandals will go towards providing free mammograms for women in need.

Playfair-Scott, who was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer (which is the most aggressive type) back in 2016, said she knows first-hand how expensive cancer treatment can get and wants to be able to make the life-saving test a little more accessible for women who simply cannot afford it.

“It’s not just the mammograms that are costly. Being diagnosed with breast cancer is costly overall and most persons can’t afford treatment especially without the help of insurance which the majority of people unfortunately do not have,” she shared. “I myself was one of those persons who just did not happen to have insurance at that particular time (she was diagnosed) so I understand the cost that comes with it. After my diagnosis and having worked a lot with the Jamaica Cancer Society, I’ve found that sometimes women just don’t go back for a mammogram or end up walking away because it’s just too expensive. It was important to me to just do what I could to help offset some of those costs.”

The marketing guru says at present there is no limit on the number of women she hopes to assist through the sales of her honorary sandals. According to her, even if it’s just one woman who ends up being assisted, it would be one more person who has access to the vital test.

“We want to be able to help as many as possible. We can’t say that there is a target, I just look at it as every mickle makes a muckle,” she said. “So if it is one woman or 100 women, as long as someone is assisted it works for me because that is one woman who is able to get a mammogram who would not have been able to get it before. That’s how I look at it.”

She urged Jamaicans in and across the Diaspora to support the sandals sale. Dubbing it ‘sandals with a purpose’, Playfair-Scott said the funds are guaranteed to be put to good use.

“We all tend to head out and grab things from time to time; whether shoes, bags, accessories, clothes  and none of those funds go back to helping someone else. In this case it does and it’s for a great cause. And it’s a plus that they’re some really cute, adorable sandals made here in Jamaica by a Jamaican manufacturer and designer that go back to helping other Jamaican women in need,” she argued.

-Shereita Grizzle