WORK by a Christchurch artist is to take centre stage at a prestigious charity fashion show in London.

Raphael's Eden, created by Sharon White, will take pride of place on the main stage at the Breast Cancer Care event at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel on October 3.

The piece will be exhibited alongside Sharon's Tree of Life artwork, which was created five years ago following an art workshop at her home, when 50 ladies used lace, ribbons and bows taken from bras to style 50 butterflies.

Designed to raise the profile of the work carried out by Breast Cancer Care, the piece also featured butterflies created from autographed bras donated by a host of celebrities including Tess Daly, Kirstie Allsopp, Lorraine Kelly, Jane McDonald, Denise Welch and pro-dancers from Strictly Come Dancing.

Sharon also held workshops at Breast Cancer Care's key offices across the UK, where women facing cancer fashioned their own personalised butterflies to style onto the artwork.

The Tree of Life has since travelled more than 10,000 miles across the globe raising awareness for Breast Cancer Care, and was exhibited at Zandra Rhodes' Fashion & Textile Museum. It is currently on show at The Royal Bournemouth Hospital's new women's health unit.

Sharon last year donated another piece of work, entitled Bellatrix, to the fashion show, which raised £4,500 for the charity at auction.

She said: "The Tree of Life continues to grow and this year I am adding two additional panels to the original artwork, which will feature more butterflies from female celebrities and the inspirational female models walking this year’s catwalk.

"Some of these mixed-media butterflies contain emotive messages of hope and love, as the butterfly is renowned for its power of personal transformation. This painting holds a very special place in my heart and it took a lot of energy to paint it. I hope this piece raises more funds for Breast Cancer Care, to enable them to continue all of the good work that they do.”

Preena Mistry, head of bespoke events at Breast Cancer Care. said: “On behalf of everyone at the charity, I want to say a huge thank you to Sharon for her ongoing support of Breast Cancer Care.

"The money raised by Sharon will help the charity to continue to provide care, support and information to anyone diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as vital breast cancer research.”