Breast cancer awareness month on the helpline

During October calls to our Helpline rise by around 30%. Many of these callers have seen coverage in the press and want to know more about how to be breast aware or their risk of developing breast cancer.

It’s great that there is a whole month to get breast health messages out there to the public. It helps us raise awareness and vital funds for what is the most common cancer in the UK. During October, the one thing you certainly can’t escape is the mention of breast cancer.

Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons why we also see a rise in calls this month from people who’ve had breast cancer themselves. They may be six months, a year, or many years past their diagnosis; Breast Cancer Awareness Month can be a particularly hard time for these callers, bringing back painful feelings and memories of their own experience.

Some callers say that having pink everywhere, the regular newspaper adverts and the magazine articles on how to check your breasts, or the personal tales of ‘how I overcame my breast cancer’, can serve as a daily reminder of everything they’ve been through.

In some cases this may highlight to our callers that they need extra support to move forward after their treatment, as many people do. That’s when we might suggest our Moving Forward partnership programmes and resources.

On the other hand, some callers will also tell us ‘I think about my breast cancer every day anyway – so reading about it in the newspaper doesn’t make any difference’.

As we find on the Helpline, there is never just one point of view about these things.

If you find yourself affected by Breast Cancer Awareness month then do call us on the Helpline to talk about how we could support you through this time on 0808 800 6000.