#knowyourlemons

#KnowYourLemons Breast Cancer Awareness

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

In a fantastic initiative to create awareness about breast cancer and how to detect it, Know Your Lemons uses lemons to explain what breast cancer can look like:

Touch your lemons!

Cancer has no cure, so in order to combat it, early detection is key.

Generally women self-examining their boobs watch out for lumps, the most common…

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Or as I like to call it, Feel yourself up October.

Did you know that every minute somewhere in the world a woman dies from breast cancer? So early prevention is still highly important. Yes, don’t be afraid and touch yourself.

And partners, get into it! You know your lady’s breasts more than anyone else. You know if something feels different. Let’s help your…

 Social media has dramatically effected Public Health and the way campaigns are marketed and words are spread. 

Just like crowdsourcing, public health is another aspect of just how powerful social media and the web can be. 

As said in this Movember paper, The Movember Foundation was an initiative that started in Australia in 2004 to raise awareness, and funds for research for prostate cancer. This has since expanded to not only prostrate cancer but mens mental health and testcular cancer as well. Through social media, Movember is now a globally recognised initiative where men participate in growing a mustache for the month of November. It is spread over numerous social networking sites (SNS) which is what allows Movember to reach so many people worldwide. It’s pretty remarkable to see how social media has impacted this initiative to raise 141million AUD in 2012. Whilst I believe this charity would of still been successful without the use of social media, I don’t think it would’ve been as globally successful.

‘Know your Lemons’ was another super successful health campaign that aimed to increase awareness of Breast cancer, to inform the public of the twelve signs of breast cancer and the need to be in touch with your ‘lemons’. 

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer found in women. Almost every person today will know of someone who either has had cancer, is battling cancer now, or is a cancer survivor. Whilst there is currently no cure for breast cancer, I believe that Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont breast cancer awareness campaign, #KnowYourLemons, acts as a non-medicinal cure. Read on to find out more…

In 2013, Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont resigned from her job to focus on her own non-profit organisation Worldwide Breast Cancer. With a goal of educating every woman about the symptoms of breast cancer, Corrine began her journey by researching the best ways of reaching women worldwide and found that well-designed visual marketing campaign would appeal to all. In 2017 the #KnowYourLemons was born. The lemons were effective in showing breast cancer symptoms without being too cheeky or graphic. Corrinne has broken barriers surrounding the human anatomy and made people aware of what they should be looking for when it comes to breast cancer symptoms. The campaign is now in 93 countries in 2018, it was believed that over 200 million people were educated on breast cancer having seen the #KnowYourLemons campaign; this is an increase from 7.3 million in 2017. That’s 193 million more people, then in 2017, who are likely to seek medical help and survive breast cancer thanks to the power of social media in spreading breast cancer awareness.

The health care system is now a digital place; want to book an appointment, well you do that on the internet. Need to check if you’re up to date with immunisations, you now have access to your own health records online. Have a rash on your arm which your doctor is struggling to diagnose, just give him a minute whilst he Googles it. Health communication online has become a huge online network with social media bringing a new dimension to health care as it offers a medium to be used by the public, patients, and health professionals to communicate about health issue with the possibility of potentially improving health outcomes. (Moorhead, et al 2004). From creating online communities where patients can discuss personal/social health and illnesses to sharing general public health campaigns. Social media has made it easier for the public to encounter and engage with health services and organisation which is essential for campaigns, like #KnowYourLemons, to be successful.

Moorhead also concludes with 6 benefits of using social media within our health care systems. This includes:

1.   Increased interactions with others.

2.   More available, shared and tailored information.

3.   Increased accessibility and widening access to health information.

4.   Peer/social/emotional support

5.   Public health surveillance

6.   Potential to influence health policy.

The #KnowYourLemons social media campaign has definitely increased education surrounding breast cancer symptoms for women. But to further this, Corrine has also started a boob conversation, which in some cultures is taboo; she has made it easier for women to look after their own health and seek help when they are unsure. Most importantly, any conversation surrounding health naturally increases its public awareness with the hope that more funding and research will go into finding a cure.

The beaches and saunas here have plenty of them. As long as their exposure is a consuentual event, I don’t mind them. *shrugs* 

And I’m sure most of Tumblr’s users can agree with that sentiment. But because I don’t have anything meaningful to say on this topic, I’ll just leave something educational. Now that we’re all so focused on nipples, this might actually end up helping somone. #knowyourlemons