Over the past eleven years nzgirl has accrued an archive of content about breast cancer with a strong history of supporting campaigns such as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the Breast Cancer Research Trust’s t-shirt campaign.
This week, to mark our own “I’ve got a lovely pair” campaign and with boobs top of everyone’s agenda, it’s a timely opportunity to remind everyone that we all need to be armed with knowledge that allows us to be proactive and breast aware if we want to detect breast cancer before it escalates.
Breast Cancer doesn’t discriminate. It’s 100% equal opportunity and targets mums, daughters, grandmas, aunties, sisters and best friends – and even men. There’s a rare (and lucky) group of nzgirl readers who can claim they don’t know of someone close to them who’s been through breast cancer.
Whether you’re here to upload your boobs, to share your support or to detract – at the end of the day take the time to (re)familiarize yourself with The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation’s three ‘Priorities in Breast Awareness’…
1. Know your breasts
From the age of 20 (that’s all of you!), the Foundation recommends women become aware of how their breasts look and feel – know what is normal for you and what changes to look and feel for. Take a closer look at that photo before you click submit it to us – what shape, size, lumps, bumps, directions are there that you can compare next time?
Click here to find out more about what changes to look for, what a lump may feel like.
2. Have a regular screening mammogram
The foundation recommends a screening mammogram as the best method for the early detection of unsuspected breast cancer in women who have no signs or symptoms of breast cancer, in other words, ‘well’ women.
3. Talk to your family doctor
The Foundation urges women – at any age – to consult their family doctor, without delay, if they have the slightest concern about their breasts.
We’re completely appreciative that everyone will take our campaign how they wish to, with such a personal matter there are going to be many ways to take it, but we’ve been thrilled with the response from you guys, our readers, who by and large have appreciated the opportunity to do something to support a cause they believe in; both encouraging positive body awareness and more importantly breast awareness.
It’s also worth noting that we did consult quite a few people affected by breast cancer before we launched the campaign; with many of our contributors, including staff members, to the gallery citing this as their reason for contributing, as a testament to mothers, grandmothers, friends, etc who fought breast cancer either successfully or who passed away as a result.
We stand by our campaign to create awareness and get nzgirls talking about issues so close to many of us – this is our nzgirl way of doing things a bit differently – and we reiterate that if we can get even one nzgirl to be more aware of their own breasts and know how to check them then we’d qualify this as a #win.
And remember, this is only ONE of many ways you can raise awareness and funding for breast cancer research. You can also jump online to givealittle and make a donation yourself.
Update: Tuesday 7th December 2010. The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation have requested we clarify any reader confusion and state that the ‘lovely pair’ campaign is in no way supported or endorsed by The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.
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