As September 1st officially launches GCAM - Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month - I am thrilled to announce that I am joining the brilliant Eve Appeal as an Official Ambassador.
The Eve Appeal is the only charity dedicated to all five women's cancers in the UK and is at the forefront of critical research into and raising awareness of vulval, vaginal, cervical, womb and ovarian cancers.
I've been working with the Eve Appeal on and off since 2010 when I was part of the team that launched the All for Eve brand into retail. I've seen first hand the critically important work that they do and watched from the sides as the uptake of smear tests has dropped, and as the media continues to treat women's reproductive organs like they are dirty words.
Only this week when sending out press release for the launch of GCAM, the Eve Appeal had their emails filtered into a 'quarantined' section of the recipient's server because it contained the word 'vagina' in the header. VAGINA. You know, that body part that women have. Doesn't happen with 'testicle'.
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| Launching #bubblesandbush last week on the Good Ship Benefit |
There is much work to be done. The figures range from horrifying to shocking to just plain embarrassing. 60 per cent of women cannot pick out the vulva on a medical diagram. SIXTY PER CENT. Among the same group, 70 per cent recognised the penis, foreskin and testicle on men. *head explodes*
Can you label the diagram?
Athena Lamnisos, Chief Executive of The Eve Appeal said: “It is wonderful of Caroline to join us as an Ambassador of The Eve Appeal. With 1 in 5 women unable to name a single sign or symptom of gynaecological cancers, and with almost a third of 16 to 35 year olds avoiding going to the doctors as they are too embarrassed to talk about these issues, the need to break the stigma and raise awareness has never been more urgent.”
“We are all incredibly grateful to Caroline and are very much looking forward to working with her.”
21 women a day will die of a gynae cancer.
My work with The Eve Appeal is dedicated to my Nana.
Official Announcement via The Eve Appeal
More information on Bubbles and Bush
More information on how to support The Eve Appeal
More information on the five gynaecological cancers
