Breast awareness

Whatever your age, size or shape it’s important to take care of your breasts. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, so it’s important to look after your breasts by being breast aware.

Being breast aware is part of caring for your body. It means getting to know how your breasts look and feel so you know what is normal for you. You can then feel more confident about noticing any unusual changes.

Most changes won’t turn out to be breast cancer, but if it is breast cancer, the sooner it is diagnosed the more effective treatment may be.

Even though it’s uncommon, men can also get breast cancer so they need to be breast aware too.

We also know that black and south Asian women, older women, women in socially disadvantaged areas and women with learning disabilities are less likely to be breast aware, and tend to wait longer before seeing a doctor about a change or to attend screening when asked.

At Breast Cancer Care we want to ensure we can spread the breast awareness message to as many people as possible.

To enable us reach these groups, we run training courses for health professionals, community workers and health promotion staff, as well as training and supporting people to become Breast Cancer Care breast health promotion volunteers.

In addition to our general publications on breast awareness, we have also produced information specifically on breast development and breast health for teenage girls and for those with learning disabilities and their carers.

Content last reviewed July 2011; next planned review 2012