How These Twelve Lemons Are Helping Women Fight Breast Cancer

The social media is a powerful tool, especially when it comes to raising awareness about the various issues that plague our lives. From raising funds for victims of natural disasters, supporting human rights movements to raging battles against life-threatening diseases, social media has successfully placed itself at the center of all such things.

Breast cancer is one such burning issue, which needs to be a focus of our discussions constantly. Luckily, the awareness is on the rise and has helped several women identify this problem at the right time. Yet, this isn’t enough considering the number of women who get afflicted by this disease regularly. No wonder then that there is a slew of ‘awareness’ campaigns that we come across every now and then about breast cancer. However, before jumping onto the bandwagon, we need to pause and think – is the campaign we are part of, really serving its purpose?

Image: Shutterstock

Recently, there was one such ‘game’ on Facebook that required people to post a heart on their timeline to support breast cancer. Despite the good intentions, many users – like Erin Smith – wondered if it really served the purpose.

Then, in December 2015, Erin Smith came across another picture on Facebook that showed how breast cancer ‘looks’ like. Titled ‘What Breast Cancer Can Look & Feel Like’, the picture had 12 lemons with each one depicting the various forms and size changes of a cancer-inflicted breast. This was when Erin noticed an indentation that looked similar to the one in the picture. She immediately realized that she had breast cancer. She did try to feel the tumor, but it wasn’t palpable. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 days later. The following month, it was confirmed as stage 4.

Erin Smith Chieze, now a cancer survivor, credits this very picture of 12 lemons as one of the reasons she could detect and survive cancer. She has now taken it upon herself to urge people to be part of meaningful campaigns that give real information and save lives – just like the 12-lemon picture that saved hers. She reminds people that breast cancer affects lives and no one should indulge in games that play with someone’s life.

Citing her own example, she reiterated that had she not looked at the picture of those 12 lemons, maybe she’d have just overlooked her grave condition. Since the picture left an indelible mark on her mind, she could immediately relate to it the moment she found that indentation on her breast. That picture gave her a clear idea of what breast cancer would look like. She further goes on to state that had it been another random picture with no clear-cut information, she wouldn’t have known what to look for.

Erin also shared the link (URL) of the picture that saved her life. While initially, she did mention that she wasn’t aware of who posted the picture originally, her post caught the attention of the original creator. The designer of the poster, Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont, contacted Erin personally. And, Erin wholeheartedly credited Corrine for her effort in an edited version of her post. As it turned out, Corrine’s grandmothers too had breast cancer, and when they died of it, she plunged herself into a relentless mission to create the right kind of awareness regarding this disease.

Erin also shared the link to a similar picture from the Worldwide Breast Cancer website’s signature campaign – Know Your Lemons – to give a better idea of what happens inside the breast when it is inflicted by cancer.

Through her strongly-worded post, Erin has raised an important question – about the credibility of awareness campaigns and how they can save lives if done the right way. We couldn’t agree more with her. With issues as important as breast cancer, it is imperative that we showcase awareness campaigns responsibly and sensitively. By doing so, such campaigns will definitely get the much-needed shot-in-the-arm for them to be taken seriously and raise their credibility. It may also help many men and women to recognize the condition early, seek medical aid as soon as possible and treat the condition on time.
And for women like Erin and Corrine, we wish more power to them. May their tribe increase!

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