Only a month or so to go… BCC people, is anything planned? If so, please tell us! - preferably with links to the “secondary” section of the main BCC website. Should be 13th October again, I think.
Glad you have posted this Mrs Blue.
While writing may I suggest that as part of the secondary BC awareness project, BCC seek volunteers who suffer from secondary BC, to keep a year long diary of their healthcare experiences. I know that many people are completely satisfied with the care they receive, but many are not. I honestly believe this information would help BCC to improve services.
Hi Mrsblue and Lemongrove
Here’s a message from the team co-ordinating this year’s Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day:
Thanks for getting in touch about this year’s Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Over the past few months we’ve been busy working away on the activity for this year - October 13 – and we’re planning to launch the promotion in the next couple of weeks. There’s a short note on the Secondary Breast Cancer Awareness Day website at Secondary. Not Second Rate. | Breast Cancer Now to look out for the new materials and we’ll be updating it shortly with how people can support the day.
The theme for this year is ‘A day in the life’ and we’re producing new web pages, booklets and a series of short films to illustrate the everyday practicalities of living with secondary breast cancer. We’re using this theme to challenge some of the misconceptions people have around what it means to live with a secondary diagnosis and to engage the media and decision-makers. (We’re looking for people with a secondary diagnosis who are happy to share their experiences of a day in their life on the website – look out for more on the web pages soon or contact clare.kemsley@breastcancercare.org.uk for more information if you’d like to share your story.)
Alongside ‘A day in the life’ we’ve updated ‘Taking action together’ , our guide to campaigning for improved standards of care for people with secondary breast cancer. Copies can be downloaded now from Search Results | Breast Cancer Now (here’s a direct link to the Taking action together guide.)
We’re continuing to support healthcare professionals in this area and are developing a new toolkit for nurses to help them provide the best possible standards of care for secondary patients. We’ll also be sending a copy of the new ‘A day in the life’ Awareness Day leaflets to each member of our Nursing Network (around 780 nurses working in breast care across the UK).
Over the next few weeks in the lead-up to the day, we’ll be talking about our plans on the Forums, Live Chat sessions and face-to-face services. We’ll also be promoting the day through our communications with our volunteers and Breast Cancer Voices, in our Vita magazine (find out how to receive a regular copy here), and with dispatches of relevant publications. We plan to promote the day on Facebook and Twitter so we’ll be asking people to get involved on that front too.
Our Communications team are also working hard to place stories in the media about secondary breast cancer and the Awareness Day. We’re hoping to build on last year’s success where we saw a significant amount of media coverage of the subject in the UK’s local, regional and national media. (Find a summary of last year’s coverage here.)
So, please keep an eye out for more information and thanks again for your post.
(PS Lemongrove - I’ve passed your other suggestion to our secondary breast cancer campaigning team. Thank you for your suggestion.)