POSTED ON BEHALF OF THE MERCHANDISING TEAM
Dear All
It has taken a little while but we are pleased to report that we now have a few possible designs for a new pin to be dedicated to people with, or affected by, secondary breast cancer. We are planning to feature the pin in our merchandise catalogue this summer as well as online to coincide with our peak sales period.
In an earlier post we explained why the butterfly design has been selected, because it’s our top-selling and most popular design and it will generate greatly-needed income. The biggest onus for the gift shop is income generation, which is why the pin has to be commercially successful, however the team are keen to develop one which is specially dedicated to people affected by secondary breast cancer.
Below is an image of the 14 designs where you can see whether the individual colours on sections of the butterfly are planned to be in glitter or plain enamel. (All butterfly designs have a silver-tone metal outline and between each segment.)
We are looking forward to your feedback, which you can give by posting here on the forum or if you would prefer not to share your views openly you can email your thoughts and suggestions to shop@breastcancercare.org.uk please let us know your thoughts by the Friday 24 April.
Many thanks in advance for your views and we will share the results once all feedback has been received and processed.
Finally, please note that the gift shop activity is separate from some forum users’ interest in developing their own pin/token to represent secondary breast cancer, which of course won’t have a primary fundraising objective.
Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts with us.
Best wishes
Anna
Forum Coordinator
Thank you, Anna, for posting this thread on behalf of BCC.
I hope there will be many responses to this (personally I will not comment on the proposed designs). If Forum users can reply to this thread, we can all read their views… I think that would be helpful. (But if users prefer to keep their comments confidential or anonymous, please reply to the email address as suggested.)
Original thread here forum.breastcancercare.org.uk/t5/Living-with-secondary-breast/What-do-we-want-for-Awareness-Day-2015-A-suggestion-a-separate/m-p/895639/highlight/true#M55085
As we need to go with a butterfly - I don’t think it’s the best option - the candle is but if it has to be a butterfly then I’d like to go with option one but the colours of the wings the other way round. I know number 11 is almost similar but I don’t like the shade of pink on that - it’s too fluffy for my liking. I like Mrs blue idea of starting at the top and working down - thus swapping the colours would replicate this. I hope this makes sense. We definitely need something so in order to get something I’ve responded xxx
Marie, I have had multiple bone mets (secondaries) since 2006. and multiple liver mets since 2009. Primary breast cancer can be cured, but not secondary bc. Yes, there are many treatments, but sooner or later all of us who have secondaries get to the stage where we cannot have any more active (anti-cancer) treatment such as chemo, and only palliative treatment can be given.
Probably you yourself are well aware of these realities if you have secondaries. If you don’t think that black is appropriate for a “secondary” pin badge, how do you suggest that BCC can develop a marketing item that helps raise awareness of secondary bc?
I am not keen on the butterfly and cannot see why or how people will associate the pin with sbc - so I am not sure why it would be commercially successful. (I can’t find the post that explains why it has to be a butterfly.) However, from the options given, my personal preference is 11. I also like the idea of a ribbon with black edging.
I am not keen at all on the butterfly, beside which hasn’t it already been used as a charity pin by someone else.
I feel that a pin needs to reflect what it is to have secondary breast cancer- that it is a continous round of scans,treatment,scans and treatment. My idea would be to have a circle with arrows indicating the progression of acan/treatment/scan with perhaps the lettering SCAN TREAT REPEAT in the centre and the circle gradually becoming lighter in shade -the end of the circle is incomplete to signify death as I think some kind of hard hitting image,rather than a playful butterfly is needed. I have run this by two of the SBC groups I belong to and most agree. They definitely dislike the butterfly. I can’t link to the image on here but could show you somehow if possible !
I dont like the butterflies and I don’t the the idea of candles. I like Chipper’s idea. And I have metastatic breast cancer.
Amanda
I don’t think that BCC ever said the candle is difficult to make - 2 or 3 colours (pink, black, and maybe yellow for the flame), it doesn’t fit in well with BCC’s marketing guidelines, but I think they would be willing to work with someone (sorry, it won’t be me) who might get the candle idea going.
Just for the record, the black part of the candle was meant to represent the later stages of sbc - when anticancer treatment is no longer possible… the candle is still burning. Sorry, I can’t find my original post on here… chemo brain 
Ribbon, and Chipper’s round-and-round idea, are also good ones, I think.
So… if 3% (or whatever) of funding goes to research into new treatments for SBC… many of us sign up for clinical trials, in good faith (I have done two) but these new treatments are then said to be not cost-effective, so they become unavailable to us… I do wonder whether the general public are now less likely to donate towards this?
And as to the 3%, I’d be very interested if someone from the BCC Secondaries team could give us an up-to-date figure - if they don’t have this information I wonder who does.
Maybe off topic for pin badge but let’s keep talking…
Hi mrsblue and Chocolates
I have passed your requests for information on to our forum co-ordinator.
Thank you all for your comments on this thread.
Very best wishes
Janet
BCC Moderator
I agree with you, a pink ribbon with a black edge, symbolises hope and sadness for me. If a butterfly has been selected already then maybe a pink butterfly with a black edge. All the different colours will confuse the public. Is the primary aim to raise funds or raise awareness? The pink ribbon will do the latter more effectively because its already well recognised and people will ask about the black edge. Interesting post…
I think it’s an important point Helen has raise. BCC has already paid for the set up costs for the ribbon design so it makes sense to use the it with different colours and have an increased revenue from each pin and the public already associate the ribbon with bc
Hi belinda,
I’ve passed your question on. Thank you for your comments on this.
Very best wishes
Janet
BCC Moderator
Looks like the pink/black ribbon is the way to go, to begin with, anyway.
BCC could easily change the colours of a ribbon pin badge.
Or we could make our own fabric ribbons and wear them to raise SBC awareness!:
I think SBC funding might need a different approach, possibly a new and separate charity?
Dear All
Thank you for all the comments, ideas and suggestions shared on this thread and by email to shop@breastcancercare.org.uk<mailto:shop@breastcancercare.org.uk . I have been in contact with both the clinical team and the merchandise team. 2catlady is correct with the quotes regarding the death rate each year. There are no robust figures for specific numbers of people living with SBC, this data never used to be collated and now, thanks in part to a policy initiative from Breast Cancer Care, this data is now starting to be collected.
Please see below for an update from the merchandise team:
The giftshop needs to develop a new butterfly pin for late summer and would love to take the opportunity to dedicate the new pin to people affected by secondary breast cancer. This is a separate initiative from developing a symbol for secondary breast cancer which would have a wider purpose and remit than fundraising (as the discussion notes) but we’ll be happy to lend any expertise or contacts to that initiative. We’ll get feedback from our suppliers on the feasibility of a pink ribbon with a black border and will provide an update on this as soon as we hear. In respect of the short-term dedication, we will send through updated butterfly designs soon following your butterfly design comments, but if the idea of a short-term dedication is unhelpful, please do say – this is why we wanted to consult with you.
Best wishes
Anna
Hello everyone,
Thank you for the comments and ideas which you have all shared on this thread. Considering the range of responses, this thread will be used to conclude whether or not the giftshop team should use the opportunity of a new butterfly pin to dedicate it to people affected by breast cancer and if so, which of the three most recent designs should be used to do that.
We will open a new thread tomorrow to explore the wider discussion around development of a symbol / emblem specifically for secondary breast cancer. We will open the discussion with the list of three ideas (the candle, circles and pink ribbon pin with black borders) and we’ll ask the giftshop team to feed back on design implications for manufacturing a pin. They’ve asked a supplier to assess the idea of a pink ribbon pin with black borders and hope to have the update ready for the new thread.
All views on the butterfly pin and whether or not we should dedicate it to people affected by secondary breast cancer, would be most gratefully received to conclude this thread. Thank you for taking time to share your thoughts with us.
Best wishes
Nicole
Forum Coordinator
Hi Everyone
It appears that this thread was never fully concluded and for that I apologise. I have spoken with the Shop Team who have provided the following response.
Thank you for the feedback to this thread. As the wider discussion about a formal symbol has overtaken the giftshop team’s interim dedication idea, we’ve concluded that the giftshop team should not proceed with a butterfly pin dedicated to people affected by secondary breast cancer. The giftshop team thanks everyone for their feedback and will be happy to input to the wider discussion when the symbol is decided, or if they can help in any way during the decision-making process (eg to get some designs mocked-up) they’ll be very happy to do that.
Thank you all again for your input and the wider discussion regarding a formal symbol for secondary breast cancer is continuing on the other thread forum.breastcancercare.org.uk/t5/Living-with-secondary-breast/Your-thoughts-please-Ideas-for-secondary-breast-cancer-symbol/m-p/937552/highlight/false#M59963
Best wishes
Anna
Forum Coordinator
