This is an email I have sent to BCC, unfortunately the email has bounced back as undeliverable so I’ve put it here. I thought it would be a good idea to post here to get together a cross section of views from the young women affected by breast cancer, as we have walked the path and are without doubt the experts! Moderators, could you please bring this to the attention of whoever organises new campaigns, perhaps to be considered as an agenda item at your next charity board meeting? I am sure many many younger women would be in agreement that we need to raise awareness in younger women our age, and I hope they’ll pledge their support below. In the meantime, my friends and I have shared the American foundation’s photo on our twitter and Facebook accounts and asked friends to repost them, to spread the word far and wide. It seems fitting for the month of October, and sure beats the h*ll out of those silly “9 inches red bra” type games people play!
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Hi Emma,
I’m one of BCC’s voices, I was diagnosed in march 2010 aged 36. My friends (who I met through your forums) and I agree that there is a very real need to raise awareness with younger women.
Have you seen the young women’s breast cancer awareness foundation website? They are based in the States, but are doing a great campaign with a photo of a younger woman who found her lump whilst breastfeeding her 8 month old baby, and she is holding a sign saying “I am… Not too young”. It’s spot on in raising awareness, there is nothing more hard-hitting than personalising it and showing that normal young women, with none of the publicised risk factors, get this disease.
Coppafeel is great, but we need something for those of us a little older but definitely pre menopausal too. Most of us don’t have the risk factors that are always cited in the press as they are risk factors for post menopausal women. The publicity of these risk factors actually seems to be counter productive with younger women as it leads them to think they are safe, especially when coupled with the age of routine screening. However, breast cancer in younger ladies is usually more aggressive with a worse prognosis, partly because of the nature of the disease and partly because of late detection/action. I know you are a charity with limited means but if we are putting one set of messages out which lull younger women into a false sense of security, then I really think there is a need to redress the balance. Where is the campaign highlighting that we are more at risk whilst pregnant or in the two years after pregnancy? Where is the campaign that family history at a similar age is a factor, and the parallel campaign that you can get breast cancer as a younger woman even without any of those factors.
I post on the forum as Tors. Please have a look at my thread “how did you find your lump/symptoms?” and you’ll find a wealth of experiences highlighting the gap in the awareness campaign. My friends and I would love to do something to help. We think a Dove soap style campaign showing normal young women who have had breast cancer would be absolutely perfect to highlight the point that younger women get breast cancer too. Maybe Dove, or another corporate partner, could become involved to ease the cost?
Please can you forward this to the relevant person to consider, thanks for reading! I look forward to hearing from you.