I have just been looking through our local paper Liverpool echo.
Furious about an article in it Breast Cancer Changed My Body For The Better its entitled.
Also in bold writing it says
New figures show those with breast cancer can now live as long as those without.
It a story about a woman my age 46 who is delighted about her reconstructed boob.
Trying to find a way that folk will be able to read it will keep looking.
I just feel they minimise this disease so much, almost make it out to be just a little blimp in someones life.
I will definately have to reply to it.
What do people think, have any of the Liverpool crew read it? will bring it too the meet up for yoru opinions.
Rx
Hi
Waiting for OH to come in from work with it,but the headline seems bad enough.
Mary
xx
Hi Ruth,
Like Mary above, waiting for OH to come home with it - where is he??? Love xxxx
Just had a look at it online and she sounds as though she has had plastic surgery for bigger boobs and dismissed the cancer side of it.
"having had 3 children it took a toll on my body so she had an uplift and implant on right side "
Liz xx
Well I couldnt wait and i also went online,I am shaking with anger and have written to them about it almost glamourising bc and an insult to those who are dying or lost loved ones- see what they say
Mary
xx
I have read 2 news stories recently about women at industrial tribunals who lied to their employers about having breast cancer. Anyone who does that should be locked up in my view. One of them is the lawyer in London who has been trying to get a 19m payout for stress.
If anyone thinks that having bc is glamorous, they clearly don’t know the half of it.
When my sister had her first tumour at 29, it made me feel that breast surgery for reasons other than physical health was inappropriate. I know there are ladies who have surgery for psychological reasons (I believe usually reductions) and that is their choice.
I personally am not interested in reconstruction, I feel it is more to go wrong (despite having a bilateral).
Newspapers will usually sensationalise stuff (except perhaps the broadsheets).
Maybe I am being naive after reading the article online, but if this lady is happy with her reconstruction then I think that is a result.
Cherub, I agree with your post, what you were referring to DOES make me angry!
Dawnflower
Hi everyone,
Have read the article and think that if this lady wants to move on and can move on from her bc dx then good for her. Didn’t like the headline though. Love xxxx
Hi everyone,
I had a burns accident 20 years ago in which my breasts were immersed in hot water. They are still scarred quite badly, very large (HH) and very very droopy - from both that, and pregnancy, breast feeding etc etc etc. So when I found out about the bc, one of the first things I thought was “ok, time to deal with all this”. I can get the scarring taken away (luckily they are large enough to do this and still leave loads of skin for recon), a nice new perky pair of a size where I can go into a normal shop and buy a bra rather than buying online, cut the risk of recurrence a bit and all in one op. What’s the downside? Actually, I spent two hours one night trying to decide on what size I want the new ones (somewhere between a D and E) 
It does sound like that headline was a bit off, but each person has their reasons for doing what they do.
Take care everyone,
Caron x
I dont like the headline, but she may not either!! Newspapers always add their tactless bit of sensationalism. She may have told her story so that newbies going through this awful diagnosis could see light at the end of the tunnell. She may be devastated to think that it would offend anyone.
When told i should have a mastecetomy (and chemo), I had to be peeled of the ceiling. I was hysterical. My surgeon made the recon larger than the original and then augmented the other to match. I went from B to C.(little gift from NHS)
I look better than before when I am dressed,and even in a bikini no-one would ever know. I happily parade changing rooms in my bra/knickers because my figure is back, and better than before. The only person to see the imperfections of the recon breast is my hubby and any newbies forwarded to me by my nurse as an inspiration for the light at the end of the tunnell.
her new found joy with her appearance, may be a way of saying “up yours cancer”. I certainly feel that way.
Jules x
I think you might well have hit the nail on the head Jules - no one apart from the woman and the reporter really know what was said. I’ve done quite a bit of media work in our area over the years and I ended up having to tell them not to portray me as ‘brave’, ‘victim’ or whatever. Unfortunately the press do want to sensationalise articles because they think that’s what sells the paper.
Good on her if she does feel much better from an image point of view now.
It’s very easy to jump to conclusions when we don’t know the whole story and shame on the paper if they haven’t totally told it as accurately as she wanted them to.
I find media coverage such as this utterly distasteful and feel quite angry with women who agree to tell their stories in this way. I know that the woman involved probably didn’t have control over the headline, but she did have control over the gist of her account. What is the newsworthiness of this? That someone got a new pair of boobs…??that this is what breast cancer is all about…the opportunity to have a born again new life? It is stories like this which feed the frenzied development of the myth of breast cancwr as the latest must have designer diseease.
Certian parts of the media love anything to do with tits and boobs, and throw in a bit of cancer too and wow it sells your papers. The main awfulness of breast cancer as far as I am concerned is not that it leads to the loss of a breast but that it kills people plus the impact of ghastly treatments on lives…infertility, long term fatigue etc.
Breast cancer is not a single disease…but many. A lot of women with early stage breast cancer do now survive many years, but lots of women still don’t, and lots of us weren’t in any case diagnosed at an ‘early’ stage.
Right now I’m walking around in fitted t-shirts with a prosthesis, lymphoedema sleeve and barely a centimetre of hair. I am so pleased to be not having tretament for a few weeks before I start all over again…I feel well, lucky for the time being and moderately happy. I’m not ‘crawling under the covers’ but I don’t feel the need to talk to my local paper about any of this…doubt they’be in interested in a not particularly photogenic 59 year old anyway. Breast cancer has neither changed my body or my life for the better.
Jane
As usual, well put JaneRA. I agree, it’s in poor taste and the paper, not the patient is at fault for sensationalising this awful disease. All we need now are moaning healthy peeps complaining about women geting free cosmetic surgery on NHS following a perseved minor illness. I am ashamed of the Echo, I though it was a reputable paper. Ruth, I hope you wrote to them and got a reply. A general appology in the paper with a follow up article on how dreadful this illness is to soooo many women, men and their families should be the least they do.
Irene
Maybe the Echo should be invited to the Liverpool meet on Friday to hear the truth. And report the truth. And for someone at the meet to read the proof before publication. That can be done. I did it myself when a newspaper interviewed me once but I said only on condition I read the proof first.
Maureen xx
Thanks for the replies.I did email the woman from the echo who had done the article but didnt even receive an acknowledgment.
Someone did send a letter of complaint and it was printed with a reply from them a week later. It was pretty much what i had expected defending themselves and denying the fact they over looked the seriousness of the disease.
I find that in newspapers they want to put over that BC is curable and treatable and we all live happily ever after new boobs and all.
If only it was that simple hey.
Rx
I still reckon that some women who have had breast cancer and the breast cancer charities bear repsonsibility for the crass stuff which appears in the press. The press are always looking for a particular kind of breast cancer story, upbeat, ‘postive’, best if children are involved and younger conventionally attractive ‘feminine’ women. What on earth was it that was newsworthy about that story in the Liverpool Echo? Maybe a serious piece on reconstruction is newsworthy but not when you get women implying that recon changed their lives for the better.
Those of us with breast cancer should stop colluding with the images which the press and the charities want to promote. I sometimes think we should do a one breasted bald headed, steroid fatty picket of the much heralded ‘fashion shows’ so beloved of the charities. (know that’s controversial but sorry that’s what I think…)
Jane
Here Here!
I had gone over many a time in my mind my own experiences and also adding about the friends i have lost from this disease and the 2 gorgeous women i have met recently who have lung and liver mets but i doubt they would print it after all who wants the ‘facts’ it may scare people. We all survive don’t we???
Rx
Have to disagree a bit on this one. There are plenty of women I know who, despite the awfulness of their breast cancer diagnosis, have come through the experience very well and who feel that good things are happening in their life despite, and yes even sometimes because, of breast cancer. If they want to tell their stories then I think that is just as valid, and they have just as much right to do that, as those of us who want to strongly get across the awfulness of breast cancer. Like anything else, this is multi-dimensional and we all have our own experience, and each of them is valid. I think to suggest that people who have encouraging stories to tell of their experience of breast cancer are “colluding” with the press and charities is frankly unfair. I was asked to write an article about my experience recently, and I did so, although I felt quite upbeat it came out being pretty negative (talking about relationships ruined, young women with secondaries, people who die), I felt I had to put all that in, or I would be letting down my breast cancer friends!
It’s all valid. No one can tell us how to feel, or how to react. If we don’t like what we see in the press, we must go out and make sure that our own stories are told. But I think it would be awful to make any one feel uncomfortable about being upbeat if that’s the way it is for them. Many people have said to me that seeing me go through treatment (Surgery, radiotherapy and chemo) has taken a lot of the fear away for them should they ever be diagnosed. They have seen me appear (at this stage) in one piece and that it was (as we say) do-able. It’s scary enough to be told you have breast cancer without every story being a very negative one, many people do get through the treatment and go on to lead happy, hopeful lives. It’s all about balance.
Yes, it’s all about balance, good point, that’s why I feel currently there isn’t enough balance and many many people really do believe that BC is totally treatable, curable and easy to recover from. By all means show some positive, but by implying it’s all positive, it is letting us, the sufferers, our families, and future patients down.
Liverbird: Can I give you a little advice?, don’t bother to email a complaint to anyone, they are so easy to ignore or even say it didn’t arrive! Been there got the etc etc! Letters or phonecalls with follow ups usually needed are what I find get at least partly results!
Irene
Each and every one of us has our own individual experience of breast cancer. We are all at different points. I try very hard to respect that and to be understanding.
I know from personal experience on another issue how journalists can be. There are some with true integrity. That woman in the newspaper was happy with her outcome - she still has to live with the thought it may come back. I do not understand the criticism of people who take a positive view of their situation. I fully appreciate that I may die of breast cancer but I have to die of something sometime and I would be truly damned if I did not live now as I have done in the past - believing in enjoying every day, bringing up my sons, living a good life and helping others. Having a cancer, which happened to be in my breast, has changed my life in some ways but I see no point in letting it rule it. Hence I am a positive person - I move forward, I don’t look back all the time. I wonder why we only think of breast cancer when this thorn takes so many other shapes? Breast cancer has a high profile and gets more sympathy funding than most cancers. We are fortunate compared to many people.
Jennifer