This is the seventh year that the campaign 'BreastFit. Women's bust. A man's issue', organised by the Onkocafe Foundation - Together Better. The number seven symbolises change and development in our culture, hence the theme of this year's edition is change - both the change that takes place in a woman's life at the moment of diagnosis and treatment, but also change understood in a much broader context. We are talking about the changes that have recently taken place in the way our society perceives cancer, but also in the attitudes of patients themselves, in the organisation of oncology care and, finally, in access to treatment.
As part of the campaign 'BreastFit. Women's Bust. A Man's Cause', as in previous years, twelve men from the world of sport have joined forces to create a unique 'Power of Community 2023' calendar. It symbolically depicts the spectrum of emotions associated with a breast cancer diagnosis - from fear, sadness to anger. The campaign ambassadors have been actively promoting prevention and the idea of supporting women in prevention and during their illness for years. -The theme of this year's calendar is change. We want men who are faced with a change - the illness of a close female relative - to be ready for it, to know how to react well and to be supportive. Change is accompanied by emotion, and it is on the pages of this calendar that we can see the 12 emotions that can drive a man. The photos were taken by the excellent photographer Tomasz Zienkiewicz. This year, on each of the twelve photographs we will find a QR code linking us to the statements of the athletes, from which we will learn, among other things, what change means to them, how their definition of taking care of oneself has evolved, to what extent their awareness and approach to oncological diseases has changed thanks to participation in many editions of the campaign, and whether, after so many years, the idea of BreastFit has become a part of their everyday life. - says Kuba Poplawski - initiator, producer and participant of the calendar since the first edition of the campaign. During this year's edition of the campaign, the Onkocafe Foundation - Together Better carried out a series of BreastFit Prevention workshops, thanks to which it was possible to train about 250 people. The idea behind the workshops is for their participants - the new Breastfit Prevention Ambassadors - to pass on the knowledge of breast cancer prevention to more women in their region. Regional meetings dedicated to patients with advanced breast cancer and their loved ones are also an important element of the campaign. For the purposes of this year's campaign, a special analysis of media messages on the perception and coverage of advanced breast cancer was also prepared.
Breast cancer - the image of the disease in public space
Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumour in women worldwide . It is estimated that about 20 000 women in Poland suffer from breast cancer annually, and in 5-10% of them, the cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage. Despite these alarming data, as experts emphasise, there is still far too little talk about advanced breast cancer in the public debate. From the data presented in the report 'Advanced breast cancer. Media analysis 2012 - 2022', carried out by Press Service on behalf of Novartis, shows that more than 257,000 publications on breast cancer have appeared in the media over the past 10 years . However, only 3,225 of these were devoted to the advanced stage of the disease. This is just 1.2% of all publications on this cancer. Just a decade ago, advanced breast cancer was a marginal topic in the media - in 2012, only 45 articles on the disease were published in the media, while in 2021 there were seven times as many publications . However, according to Anna Kupiecka, President of the OnkoCafe Foundation - Together Better, there is still much to be done in the area of raising public awareness of advanced breast cancer. - When we launched the campaign 'BreastFit. Women's Bust. A man's issue', the topic of advanced breast cancer hardly existed in the public space. Today, the situation is different, but there is still a lot of work to be done on this topic - underlines Anna Kupiecka and adds As part of the campaign, we are educating about the role of prevention and early detection of breast cancer and working with the problem that there is a lack of openness to talk about advanced breast cancer due to low awareness of the disease. And the lack of knowledge causes a lot of anxiety in women who are diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. Patients are terrified, treating the disease like a sentence. We need to change this perception of the disease. According to the analysis, media coverage of advanced breast cancer is dominated by educational material on what advanced breast cancer is and what the treatment process looks like . Four contexts related to advanced breast cancer are mainly addressed in the public discourse. The most frequently occurring phrases are:
- treatment of advanced breast cancer (41.82%)
- fight against cancer (23.29%)
- anxiety, fear of illness (15.91%)
- cancer dies (6.47%)
As Adrianna Sobol, psycho-oncologist, points out, it is extremely important to have the right semantics when talking about advanced breast cancer. - There are a lot of stereotypes around breast cancer - and especially advanced breast cancer. This is why how we talk about the disease is so important, to raise awareness that advanced breast cancer does not have to be a sentence. Building an appropriate, honest image of this disease in the eyes of the public will help to give patients hope. We should certainly be wary of phrases that frighten, raise fears or exert pressure. One such phrase that is very often used in the public space is "the fight against cancer". In the term "fight", there is always a winner and a loser. Treatment - can be compared to a journey, during which the patient has to perform many tasks. Each stage of treatment is burdened with further tasks to be completed, without which it is impossible to move on. - underlines Adrianna Sobol.
Time of change in the treatment of advanced breast cancer
We are living in a time of tremendous change and, thanks to medical advances, advanced breast cancer is slowly becoming a chronic disease. In recent years, the treatment of patients at this stage of the disease has undergone a huge change, giving hope to patients. We now already know that there are several types of breast cancer, as well as mutations that affect prognosis. Depending on the biological type of cancer, there are more and more options for effective treatment - Until a few years ago, the topic of advanced breast cancer was almost non-existent in the social and media space. This was due, among other things, to the limited choice of treatment pathways we could offer patients. In recent years, there have been huge advances in the approach to the treatment of advanced breast cancer and our knowledge of the biology of this cancer. The aim of current therapies is to ensure the longest possible life with the best possible quality of life. Advances in treatment allow us to say that advanced breast cancer is a treatable disease. This is why education about breast cancer is so important - not only for patients and their relatives, but for society as a whole - said Professor Tadeusz Pieńkowski, Head of the Department of Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Diseases at the Polish Mother and Child Hospital (CSK MSWiA) and Head of the Department of Oncology and Breast Diseases at the CMKP.
BreastFit. Women's bust. A man's business.
The campaign 'BreastFit. Women's bust. A man's thing" was launched in 2015 on the initiative of the Onkocafe-Nazem Better Foundation. The name 'BreastFit' refers to a popular sport - crossfit - a type of workout, but also a certain philosophy of self-discipline and a daily fight against weaknesses. BreastFit is the art of breast examination, conversation and emotional support. It is a type of training that involves men in taking care of the health of the women who are most important to them. Novartis is the main sponsor of the campaign. AstraZeneca has joined as a sponsor this year. Honorary patronage of the seventh edition of the campaign 'BreastFit. Women's bust. A Man's Business" has been assumed by the Patient Ombudsman. The social patrons are: Nationwide Oncology Federation and Women at the Centre. The initiative is also supported by the Przelewy24 service and media patronage is provided by the Twój Styl monthly. A number of exceptional ambassadors are involved in the campaign. They include: trainer and motivator Daniel Józek Qczaj, journalists Joanna Górska and Rafał Bryndal, the blogger "Modny Tata", i.e. Michał Będźmirowski, Daria Ładocha - culinary expert and blogger, Dorota Godzina - world champion and 36-time Polish kick-boxing champion, and Michał Karmowski - athlete, personal trainer, lecturer and actor.
For more information on the BreastFit campaign, visit breastfit.onkocafe.co.uk.
Source: onkocafe.co.uk