A CANCER charity is joining forces with its Guernsey counterpart to encourage thousands of Islanders to make regular breast checking part of their routine.
ABC Jersey has become the official Jersey charity partner of My Breast Friend, a free app created by Guernsey breast cancer survivor Gemma Ainger.
The partnership, launched to coincide with Pink October, will see ABC Jersey working alongside Pink Ladies Guernsey to promote the app and encourage people across the Channel Islands to become more familiar with what is normal for their bodies.
The campaign builds on ABC Jersey’s existing Touch. Look. Check. initiative, with a simple message for Islanders this October.
My Breast Friend was created by Ms Ainger after she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer at the age of 42.
She had felt healthy, had no family history of breast cancer and had not been regularly checking herself. She noticed something unusual while showering, by which time the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
Following surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, she began developing an app designed to help others establish the checking habit she wished she had already had herself.
Rather than being a clinical tool, My Breast Friend is designed to act as a friendly reminder.
Users can receive monthly prompts to check, log a check in two taps and access information about what they should look and feel for.
Ms Ainger said the app had been inspired directly by her own experience.
“I can’t change what happened to me, but I can try to use that experience to help somebody else.”
She said the aim was not to frighten people about breast cancer, but to encourage them to take a few minutes each month to pay attention to their bodies.
