I won’t be wearing pants for the next month.

But the good/bad news, depending on how you look at it, is that I will be wearing frocks instead. And UK readers, Australia has adopted the annoying Americanism of saying pants to mean trousers, so rest assured, there will be no going commando underneath. Apart from anything else, Melbourne is still bloody freezing.

Anyway, to get back to the real story…I’m taking part in Frocktober, an initiative to raise money for ovarian cancer research. The basic deal is that people sponsor you to wear a dress every day of October. In addition, I have opted to wear a different dress every day. This will a) help me decide once and for all which of my 50+ (yes, you read that right) dresses I actually like and should keep, and b) relieve me of ironing for a whole month, because every one of those frocks is already ironed. What a result.

And of course, most importantly, it will raise much-needed money to increase awareness of ovarian cancer, and develop an early detection test. Ovarian cancer is known as the ‘silent killer’ because symptoms are vague and often strike without warning, and the lack of an early detection test means women are often not diagnosed until it’s too late. Only 20% to 30% of women will survive beyond five years of diagnosis. Pretty scary, huh?

Eight of us from my office have signed up for the challenge (strangely, all women, even although men are more than welcome to participate…). Seven of us were in today for Day One (and I’m sure team member #8 was wearing a frock, wherever she was).

It started out in the classy way one would expect from such a group of articulate, stylish women.

But it wasn’t long before the pressure of the event took its toll.

Despite our limited modelling capabilities, the money has already started coming in. Our team total is sitting at just over $400, which is pretty good for one day’s frock-wearing. The Silver Fox is holding back his cash for now – he has offered to donate varying amounts for each day, depending on how much he likes the dress I am wearing. This approach jars slightly with my feminist principles – I dress for me, not him – but he’s just trying to make it fun, it’s all for a good cause, and in a country where The Bachelor tops the TV ratings, it can feel like feminism never happened.

I’m sure that over the next 30 days I will return to this topic, not least because some of the frocks I don will have a story attached.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Frocktober, or even better, make a donation, visit our team site: Advance the Frocks