The idea for the ball was the brainchild of Carly, who was inspired to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation after Karen was diagnosed with cancer in April.

Originally, she been looking at organising an end-of-work function for her Golden square gym.

"I was looking at doing end of year Christmas breakup and decided, why not make it a fundraiser," she said.

"I contacted the National Breast Cancer Foundation, got the event registered and opened it up to the public.

"Mum was pretty happy when I decided to do it." 

She said her mum had only recently finished chemo and radiation treatment after having surgery in April.

"I don't think most people realise how long the process is." 

About 100 people who attended Friday's ball helped to raise close to $2000 and everyone had a lot of fun doing so, Ms Loftus said.

"We had a raffle, we had about 35 prizes from businesses around Bendigo who donated things," she said.

Ms Loftus said her mum's diagnosis had come as a shock to the family.

"It's one of those things you hear about so much, but you never expect it to happen to you," she said.

"When it happens to you, it's surreal."

She said the family had appreciated the amount of support they had from the community.

"It's amazing, once it all happened and I started to talk to people, so many people have had this experience as well."