Day 7. Shocked? You should be.

Today our challenge is to pick out a ridiculous headline about your condition. Lets face it there are many ; hardly a day goes by and we read that broccoli  or mushrooms or under-wire bras, under arm deodorant etc etc either prevent or cause cancer. Really?? Please , please stop reporting unsubstantiated, poor quality research that either offer false hope but mostly insults all of our intelligence. Follow reputable sources of information like the Breakthrough Generations Study if you want proper information on research into the causes of breast cancer.

But it's not one of those headlines I have chosen. I have gone for one of the many headlines at the time talking of the "shocking". campaign on breast awareness that I helped to launch last September. The shocking part you see was the advert showed real breasts with signs of cancer. The message being its not only lumps that are cancer. It still astounds me that we are shocked at the image of bare breasts simply because they are ones with cancer and not the page three images we still see in daily newspapers. What is really shocking is that 4,500 women are diagnosed in Scotland every year and still the knowledge of breast awareness was low.

Undoubtedly though, the reporting of the shocking nature of the campaign helped to further it's awareness and the fantastic news is, as a result of the campaign 50% more women went to their GPs with a breast change they were concerned about. I was so pleased to hear it, I'm proud of the small part I played to get the message out to help people be diagnosed early. Its probably  one the highlights of my career with Breakthrough Breast Cancer. You can judge yourself whether its shocking or not. I think it's excellent, informative and not frightening. So share it with your family and friends too....shocking or not....it could help save a life. That's good enough for me.

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/health/elaine-c-smith-fronts-shock-cancer-campaign-1-250580