Founder of Coppafeel has died

[mirandathemagpie]

I haven't heard a lot about this charity recently but I remember when it was launched, and I know Kris Hallenga did important work. It's very sad.

The BBC article on her passing has this statement from her charity:"Please remember the amazing life Kris led and the things she achieved, but above all else honour her memory by checking your chest... it could just save your life," it added.

I went to the Coppafeel website via Google and was interested to see their concerted effort to use the word "chest" where at all possible. Unfortunate.

Wow, she sounds like she was an amazing woman. Sympathies to her family and friends.
I agree about the website language. I think there’s an admirable aim there to spread the checking message here but they’ve obviously been lobbied by someone as a charity and not been able to resist. The tide is turning, this confusing language will recede over time as multiple charities realise they need to reclaim everyday language. The founder’s message will not be lost.

Oh come on. The site frequently mentions boobs, breasts etc, 'chest' is used infrequently and in the context of a specific campaign which has been developed to target specific communities. The site is literally covered with pictures of boobs and 'breast health' and 'breast cancer' is repeated continuously.

Can't believe you'd use the death of someone, let alone someone so incredible, as a springboard for this discussion. Disgusting.

I hope her message won't be lost. I remember reading about her as a young woman myself and thinking her voice was hugely important. She definitely made me stop and think and most importantly check myself.

It is very sad news, I have said before but Coppafeel was a great source of support for a young colleague before her death from breast cancer. I know others have issue with the name, but I hope Kris's legacy can continue.

The BBC article I read took a quote from the obituary on the Coppafeel web page, which mentioned "checking your chest", which I think obfuscates the very important message this woman originally campaigned for. She was a remarkable 15 year survivor of breast cancer and it was somewhat startling to me that this was the message they chose to convey.

@Topofthemountain I am glad to hear they offered excellent support to your colleague.

Men can get breast cancer so it’s entirely correct to talk about checking your chest. You also need to check the entire chest area, not just the breasts.

The bit of their chests men have to check is their breast tissue, because they are also checking for breast cancer. Chests are a different thing anatomically.

Yep. Chest refers to your lungs and general thorax area.

Breast tissue is specific, hence 'breast cancer' (which men can also get) being different to lung cancer.

To flip around a previous comment, I can't believe a charity set up by a bc survivor would choose to weaken and obfuscate their very important message by using woolly language. Lives could be lost because of it.

On the self checker it asks you which word you prefer out of 4, I think this is a good approach. Good website.

Wow @mirandathemagpie are you always so tone deaf - what seems like faux sorrow to raise a point. The message from the website uses breast and boob 6 times and chest once as an alliterative phrase 'check your chest'. The charity is coppafeel - breast cancer awareness.

Is this really the time to bring this up after the loss of an inspirational and incredible woman?

Actually she’s done enormous amounts to actually save lives by raising awareness of breast cancer in young people. It’s grim to use this to try to slate her just because she wants to use terminology that you don’t agree with.
Also no man would talk about checking his breasts, regardless of whether it is breast tissue there.

Breast cancer is an issue that is personally significant to me and anything that can be done to raise awareness is great.

I'm not trying to slate anyone, rather to point out that language is important when discussing medical issues as the choice of words can make a difference to how the message is understood. Its not about whether I 'agree' with it or not.

You make a good point that men might not consider that they have breast tissue.

However, it does get really tiresome how some posters like to denigrate others as 'hate' or 'slating' simply for expressing a difference of opinion. Its really childish.