Updated with responses from Jodie Marsh: This woman with breast cancer has a few things to say about Page 3

Yesterday was supposedly #BlueMonday - the most miserable day of the year. But it wasn't a Blue Monday for me. I went for a check up at my hospital, following breast surgery on Monday last week.

My left breast has cancer and it had to go, so following a gruelling 18 weeks of chemotherapy, on Monday last week I had a skin sparing mastectomy, and reconstruction using muscle from my back (Latissimus Dorsi) and an expander implant. I was under general anaesthetic for 8 hours, and in hospital for 4 nights.

Yesterday's hospital appointment was to check my wounds, replace my dressings and remove the drains coming out of my breast and back. Healing and recovery all appears to be going very well so far, and I was over the moon.

Then last night the news hit that The Sun appears to have made a decision to axe the use of topless models on Page 3. Those of you that know me know that I am a strong supporter of the No More Page 3 campaign and have previously written an Open Letter to The Sun (the perspective of a 33 year old woman with breast cancer on the use of topless Page 3 models for the #CheckEmTuesday campaign) as well as some follow ups (they can all be found here if you're interested.) So I was even more over the moon when I heard this news. There'll still be women in just bras and knickers on Page 3 so it's not job done for the campaign, but it is a significant milestone step.

So I tweeted a happy tweet!

 

It got retweeted a bunch of times, including by @NoMorePage3 and so I got the inevitable stream of tweets/Facebook comments from, putting it nicely, idiots. ("Get a life", "Oi, get ya baps out", "You'd look better topless. Just saying", followed by a retweet with the addition "You wouldn't.") Someone called Megan was so mean to me that her tweet was removed and her account temporarily suspended by Twitter (her account is now back but protected so only followers can see tweets). I never saw whatever it was she put to get reported and suspended but I guess it wasn't very nice! For the record, I don't care. I genuinely don't care what people on the internet who don't know me, but who will campaign for Page 3, say to me. I've got bigger things to worry about - I have cancer!

Anyway, today there's obviously loads of discussion about Page 3. I wanted to make some points from my own perspective. This doesn't cover anywhere near everything there is to be said about Page 3/No More Page 3 - it's just some observations from a 33 year old woman with breast cancer, who had a mastectomy and reconstruction a week ago, and who, to prevent future risk of cancer will be having the other, "non-cancer" ,breast removed later this year once cancer treatment has finished.

I'm not jealous or insecure
First of all, I'm not jealous of other women's breasts. Speak out against the sexualisation and objectification of women in the media and you are quickly labelled things like "whiny, jealous bint." Today Jodie Marsh, who is speaking out against the No More Page 3 campaign, is saying women who have been campaigning against Page 3 are jealous and insecure.

(By the way, the campaign isn't trying to ban anything.)

No, I'm not jealous, or insecure. The only strong feeling I have about my own breasts right now is the desire to stop them from killing me. That's why I'm happy for a surgeon to take a knife to them. Clearly Jodie loves her breasts, and has a lot of money and a career because of them, but I'd hazard a guess that if she was diagnosed with breast cancer herself (and I obviously hope she never has to go through that), that given the choice between life and death, she'd have hers lopped off too. No, for me this isn't about jealousy or insecurity. It's about physical, as well as mental health...

What matters about breasts is that they are healthy
Remember this from the Sun last year?

The Sun tried to tell us that "Scientists say the perfect boob is all to do with the "nipple meridian" - the amount of breast above and below the areola"

Erm, no. The "perfect boob" is one that is healthy. Take it from me, that's all there is to it. If you haven't got breast cancer then you've got perfect boobs.

Topless Page 3 images have a negative impact on women's self esteem and mental health, which in turn can have a negative impact on physical health
This is true in lots of ways. I am going to address one in particular here. When I wrote my original open letter to The Sun, I was contacted by women who thanked me for speaking out, because years and years of Page 3 images in The Sun had made them feel that insecure about their own bodies that they had either delayed or avoided going to see a doctor about a concern such as a lump, due to embarrassment about removing their clothes to be examined by a male doctor. Or, they had found going to a doctor to have breasts examined an embarrassing, uncomfortable or even traumatic experience. As in the example above, The Sun is telling women on a daily basis that their breasts and bodies should be a certain way (based entirely on how they look) and if they aren't then there is something wrong with them.

Using topless Page 3 models for a breast cancer awareness campaign was unnecessary
The Sun tried to use breast cancer awareness to justify the use of topless Page 3 models. I asked numerous times, why can't The Sun raise awareness of breast cancer without topless models (like all the major charities and our own NHS do), and despite receiving a response from their Head of PR, Dylan Sharpe, I never actually got an answer. Because there is no answer. You don't need photos of glamour models to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Page 3 could be used for better things
At the moment it seems that topless images on Page 3 are being replaced with images of women in bras and knickers (which kind of defeats the argument that now that Page 3 doesn't have topless models, women have lost jobs. Surely not? Surely for now they'll be doing the same job but just with a bra on?). From my point of view this is still unacceptable. It is still just using the most important page of the newspaper (Dylan Sharpe himself told me it was the most important page of any newspaper) to objectify women. If The Sun really wants to make a change, why not use Page 3 to focus positive things, to celebrate women for a wide range of achievements, to promote better health, to inspire, to campaign (for example, Jodie Marsh herself speaks out about issues like Female Genital Mutilation - wouldn't it be great if things like this were getting the publicity they need on Page 3 rather than young women in their underwear, there for no other reason than to look "attractive" (I put that in ""s as it's a very narrow definition of attractive that Page 3 represents. Young, slim, large breasts, usually white.)

Anyway, there is so much more to be said about Page 3, but I will leave it here for now myself, as I just wanted to make a few key points about health.



Update 21st January 2015

I tweeted a link to this post to Jodie Marsh to ask her what her thoughts were. I got some replies. Here's a copy of the tweets in our conversation and also with my friend Louise.

I honestly don't know if Jodie avoids questions / points (not just mine, but other people's too, as well as the basics of the No More Page 3 campaign) or whether she doesn't understand them. But anyway, here you go....

Head of PR at The Sun replies to complaint from breast cancer patient about Page 3

I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall.

Since being diagnosed with breast cancer aged 33 in July 2014 I have written several times about why The Sun’s use of Page 3 models as part of a breast cancer awareness campaign has upset me (My original letter here). Finally, I’ve had a response. Dylan Sharpe, Head of PR at The Sun has written to me about some questions which I had asked.

My first question was:

• What specifically is being gained in terms of raising breast cancer awareness by using topless models?

Has Dylan answered this question? No.

In response to this question, Dylan referred me to an article that The Sun published recently. (This is reproduced in the copy of his email to me, below). However, there is nothing in this article that actually answers my question. The article tells me that breast cancer awareness was increased amongst Sun readers – women are checking themselves more regularly, women know more about how to check themselves, women are more aware of signs of breast cancer such as puckering and a rash and so on. But as I said in my letter to Dylan, this is because The Sun published written information and diagrams (provided by Coppafeel!) about breast checking and breast cancer signs and symptoms. The sexualised images of topless models add nothing to raising breast cancer awareness! Like I have said many times, that’s why charities like Breast Cancer Care, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Campaign, MacMillan and Cancer Research UK, along with the NHS, do not use sexualised images of topless women, ever, to raise awareness of breast cancer.

So, Dylan has not answered this question – and that’s not because he misunderstood it, I’m sure he is intelligent enough to have understood a simple question. The reason he hasn’t answered it is because nothing was gained by using topless models and he will not admit that in writing to me. Any success of Check ‘em Tuesday will have been despite the use of Page 3 models, rather than because of it.

My other two questions were:

• Is it appropriate to use sexualised images of women (as in Page 3 vs Breast Cancer - Check 'em Tuesday) as part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness?
• Exactly why won't The Sun try and raise breast cancer awareness without the use of topless models?

Has Dylan answered them? No.

Despite writing “As for your second questions...” and then continuing for another 514 words, Dylan hasn’t actually answered either of these questions! However, judging by what he has written, I assume his answers would be:

• Yes it is appropriate to use sexualised images of women as part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness, and
• The Sun won’t try and raise breast cancer awareness without the use of topless Page 3 models because we really like topless Page 3 models.

But he hasn’t actually said it outright.

Instead, I think he has tried to give me a bit of a telling off! This is what he’s told me: “Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water because you want The Sun to be a reflection of only what you want to see.”

Just to be clear, I’m not throwing any babies out with any bath water. I am a member of the public, making a complaint, as I am entitled to do, because as Dylan says: The Sun is not a reflection of what I want to see. And what I want to see is not unreasonable:

For women to be treated with respect by The Sun.

As Dylan points out in his email to me, copied below, the first inside page of a newspaper is the most important page. Pretty much every day The Sun chooses to use its most important page to show a large image of a young woman wearing nothing but her pants. Every time The Sun does this it is sending the message to all its readers that women are nothing more than sexual objects.

The fact that The Sun thought it was acceptable to put people in to a prize draw for a date with a Page 3 model ('We might even let you pick which one, so feel free to start your research now') as part of their fantasy football league makes this message (that The Sun think women are just objects) even more clear. The Advertising Standards Agency has now banned this advert due to it “presenting women as objects to be won”, and for being “sexist, offensive and socially irresponsible”. Of course, Dylan Sharpe thinks this ban means it is official that the world has gone mad:



The world has not gone mad at all. People are just making their voices heard, and telling you that they want The Sun to treat women with respect, and as human beings with equal worth as men.

Anyway, I’ll end with two final points:

I am still upset that The Sun have used a breast cancer awareness campaign to try and justify the existence of Page 3, blatantly in response to the No More Page 3 campaign.

I’m not going to be fobbed off by Dylan’s non-response and just shut up and go away. Page 3 is sexist, derogatory, damaging. It disempowers women and girls and sends a message to men and boys that women’s bodies exist for men’s sexual gratification. (Have a read of this for some real life examples of how Page 3 is having a negative effect on people's lives.) So if you haven’t already signed the petition asking The Sun to take the bare boobs out of the newspaper, then please do.

I’ll be back soon with more.

Sarah



Please find a copy of Dylan’s email to me below, in full, and unedited, as requested.

Sarah,
I tweeted Kris Hallenga's piece to you because there is a refusal among some who take issue with The Sun's content to acknowledge that the Coppafeel! Check 'em Tuesday campaign has been a great success. I would request that you put a link to Kris's Telegraph piece, and the piece below by Rachel Richardson, on your blog and share it with your followers to show them how brilliant it is that The Sun has had a positive impact on breast cancer detection and awareness among its readers.

Turning to your 'open letter', with regards to your first question, you can see what is being gained 'specifically' by the results of our independent survey of over 7,000 readers, as Rachel explains:

By RACHEL RICHARDSON
BREAST cancer awareness and boob checking has dramatically improved thanks to The Sun’s Check ’em Tuesday crusade.
Two thirds of women are now checking their breasts for cancer symptoms more often than they did six months ago.
The women polled say CoppaFeel! — our Check ’em Tuesday charity partner — is the reason for their life-saving checking habit.
Sun reader Wendy Bush, 43, below, revealed her breast cancer was caught early, after our campaign, launched in March, made her aware the rash and puckering on her breast could be a sign.
Female Sun readers are also significantly more breast aware than other women in the UK, with 59 per cent checking their boobs once a month compared with just 32 per cent of non-readers.
And they are also 13 per cent more likely to check themselves now than they were in February — before our influential campaign launched.
Kris Hallenga, the founder of CoppaFeel! who has incurable breast cancer, hailed the results as a huge triumph for the campaign and her charity.
She said: “We always knew it would have a real impact. CoppaFeel! exists to save lives by teaching women to spot the signs of breast cancer so it is hugely rewarding to see that we’ve helped.
"I am extremely proud of what we have achieved by joining forces with The Sun.”
Every Tuesday the campaign takes over Page 3 — Britain’s most famous boobs — with our models reminding readers to check, while Kris writes weekly in Me health.
The campaign is also a hit on social media. Dozens of celebrities pledged their support by posing for a boob check selfie. Images of Ed Sheeran, Fearne Cotton, Amanda Holden, Danny Dyer and Kim Marsh accompanied by #checkemtuesday have reached millions of people.
The Sun put its full weight behind the campaign after alarming statistics showed more women were checking their weight than their breasts for cancer and only 18 per cent of women were confident they knew how to examine their boobs.
Fifty thousand women — around 136 a day — plus 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.
Early detection is key to survival with more than 90 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer at the earliest stage surviving for at least five years.
Now, 79 per cent of readers feel confident they would notice an unexplained change — up from 41 per cent in March.
The new poll, which surveyed 7,884 people, also showed 31 per cent of readers are more likely to recognise puckering as a symptom while 29 per cent are more likely to know redness or a rash can also indicate cancer.

As for your second questions and your first blog directed towards me (http://hbocuninformed.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/why-cant-sun-newspaper-raise-awareness.html) the journalistic call out was for a piece that is online here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/check-em-tuesday/5915692/9-good-reasons-to-find-your-normal-and-keep-checking.html.

As you will have gathered, the feature was part of a wider campaign that Coppafeel! is running under the umbrella of ‘what normal feels like’.
This campaign has been widely reported, including:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11099938/Coppafeel-Naked-breasts-appear-on-desexualised-adverts-in-UK-shopping-centres-for-the-first-time.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/17/coppafeel-breast-cancer-nipple-adverts_n_5834112.html
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/09/17/coppafeel-puts-bare-boobs-show-desexualise-and-re-feminise-whatnormalfeelslike-0

This campaign has attracted widespread praise and support and I hope that your readers can get behind this campaign as Sun readers have done.

The demographics of most Sun readers – 20s and early 30s, low to medium incomes – and the demographics of women least likely to check for signs of breast cancer are very similar. These are the women at whom this campaign is targeted in The Sun, in which case it made sense for the case studies in our feature to reflect that intended audience.

In addition, I would like to add that The Sun isn’t a charity, however I would argue that in devoting it’s first inside page (which, as anyone in newspapers will tell you, is the most important page) once a week to a charity campaign, plus another page or often more in our health section - Me - The Sun is giving more weekly prominence to a charity than any other daily newspaper on the market. On that first inside page, we do provide the “information women need to know to check their breasts and be aware of potential signs” (example below).

[Note: Dylan included an image here of the Coppafeel! diagram with information about breast cancer signs and symptoms but I was unable to copy the image across from email to here]

​Again, if you can find a health warning like this given similar, regular prominence in any newspaper I’d ask you to share it.

The 200,000 people who have signed NMP3’s petition is roughly equal to 10% of the number of people who buy the Sun (with page 3 in it) every single day. I wonder how high the NMP3 petition would be if it regularly reset to 0 at midnight as our daily sales do? However, we have taken the decision that Page 3 can be used to promote important causes. As the survey results show, the Coppafeel! Check ‘em Tuesday campaign has had some wonderful successes. The Coppafeel! advice line has had a record number of users. At least five women have written to us to tell us they diagnosed their own breast cancer as a direct result of The Sun’s campaign. And the women who model for Page 3 have done a number of stunts and events to raise money and awareness for Coppafeel! and breast cancer awareness – the latest a bike ride around India.

It is possible to oppose Page 3 and to want a less sexualised culture, but to also support the campaign The Sun and Coppafeel! are conducting to raise awareness of breast cancer and the importance of checking. Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water because you want The Sun to be a reflection of only what you want to see.

I hope you now consider your questions answered. I ask that if you choose to use my response on your blog, you do so in full and unedited.

Kind regards
Dylan

A letter to Dylan Sharpe, Head of PR at The Sun, about Page 3 and breast cancer awareness

Dear Dylan Sharpe, Head of PR at the Sun newspaper,

Two things caught my attention on Twitter this morning. The first was this tweet from The Sun:

The second was a notification that you yourself, The Sun's Head of PR, had tweeted me:

As a reminder, I just want to  quickly go over the background. In August I wrote an Open Letter to The Sun about why their Page 3 Check 'em Tuesday Campaign upset me. A few weeks later I wrote on my blog again, asking you some questions about The Sun's recent call out for young-ish women to pose topless and talk about checking their breasts (Why can't The Sun raise awareness of breast cancer without Page 3 and topless models?). Needless to say, I didn't get a response.

Anyway, the two tweets above from this morning have prompted me to return to this debate here today.

First of all I just want to respond to what Kris Hallenga wrote about in her article in The Telegraph. Thank you for sending me a link. Kris describes how, at the time of the launch of Check 'em Tuesday, she received vicious comments online from women saying they hoped that she won’t recover from breast cancer and will go to an early grave. "One even accused me of “whacking a glamour magazine on the grave of every woman who has died from breast cancer”."

This is one of those situations where I would hope it goes without saying that I think comments like this are indeed vile and completely out of order. There's no place for hateful, vicious, personal attacks in debates about things like breast cancer awareness. But as you have pointedly tweeted the link to this article to me and asked me to consider it, I want to make sure I'm absolutely explicit in my views. After the attention my open letter got, I did write a quick follow up post because there were a couple of things I wanted to make clear. One was that I was not against awareness raising or Coppafeel, just against the use of Page 3 models for awareness raising about breast cancer.

I will say it again now. I am 33 years old, and I have breast cancer. I absolutely, wholeheartedly think awareness raising about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer is incredibly important - of course I do. And I know that Kris and Coppafeel have done a lot of important work to raise awareness of breast cancer signs and symptoms. That's a fantastic thing! My issue has been specifically with the use of Page 3 and topless models to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. However, while I completely disagree with the approach of the Check 'em Tuesday campaign, I still respect Kris and her motivation, dedication, energy and strength.

Moving on to The Sun's article today "We beat cancer thanks to The Sun"... I still simply don't understand why this whole campaign could not have been done without the use of topless Page 3 models. I've read today's Sun article from top to bottom, and at no point does it mention how sexualised images of women have helped anyone to beat cancer. All of the women's stories featured specify that they became aware that they had cancer as a result of reading about the signs of breast cancer. Some quotes as examples:

• "Sarah was reading The Sun’s Page 3 self-check guide..."
• "...noticed a rash on her left breast – and only knew it was a sign of breast cancer thanks to reading about it in The Sun."
• "Seven weeks after I first read about the signs and breast cancer in The Sun, I was told I had breast cancer"
• "I never checked my breasts — until I read about the importance of it in The Sun."
• "...had I not read about checking my breasts in The Sun, I wouldn’t have even known it was there."
• "wasn’t in the habit of checking her breasts until she read about it in The Sun."
• "...read about signs of breast cancer in The Sun".

Dylan, this is why charities like Breakthrough Breast Cancer, Breast Cancer Care, Cancer Research UK and MacMillan don't use sexualised images of topless women as part of their own breast cancer awareness information and campaigns. Sexualised images of topless women DO NOTHING TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF BREAST CANCER! What women need is information about signs and symptoms of breast cancer, alongside information about how to check for these, and what to do if they have any concerns.

So, really, I want to refer back to my original key questions to you, and wonder if you would take the time to write back to me answering them.

What specifically is being gained in terms of raising breast cancer awareness by using topless models?

Is it appropriate to use sexualised images of women (as in Page 3 vs Breast Cancer - Check 'em Tuesday) as part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness?

Exactly why won't The Sun try and raise breast cancer awareness without the use of topless models?

I hope to hear back from you soon,

Yours sincerely,
Sarah Perry

Why can't The Sun newspaper raise awareness of breast cancer without Page 3 and topless models?

A bit of background

A few weeks ago I wrote an open letter to The Sun newspaper explaining why their Page 3 vs Breast Cancer: Check 'em Tuesday campaign upset me. You can read it here if you want. That blog post has had over 9,000 hits, and led to follow up articles on The Debrief, Buzzfeed and The Stir. I was blown away by the response, it was completely unexpected. But it was clear that I was far from alone in feeling the way I did, and on that day (the day before my first chemotherapy blast) the No More Page 3 campaign got over 1,000 more signatures on their petition. It was amazing! It felt like writing that blog post was a really positive thing to have done. A little something good to come out of my own breast cancer diagnosis.


Then this:

3 weeks later, just after my second blast of chemotherapy, I see this pop up in my Twitter feed.

 

 

I followed the link and this is what I read:

 

"Some of you yesterday forwarded an email you received from The Sun, or via other means, that had rendered you sad/angry/gobsmacked. This is the email...

'I'm looking for women who are happy to pose tastefully topless and speak about how often they check their breasts for lumps and bumps. The shoot will be taking place in London on Saturday, all expenses paid. Ideally they will be young-ish and are happy to be interviewed about their breast checking habits (ideally looking for women who check their breasts regularly or have just started doing so). They may have had breast cancer in the past or have relatives who have, or they could be BRCA positive. They may also be perfectly healthy.
With you, can you please email me asap with
Name of nearest station:
Dress size:
Shoe size:
Bra size:
Email address:
Mob number they'll have with them on the day:
Along with a little head shot (not for publication, just for reference).
And do pass this on to any other contacts of yours.
Thanks,
Matt"

 

Dylan Sharpe, Head of PR at The Sun newspaper responded to the No More Page 3 tweet above with:

 

 

 

Yes, Dylan, there is a problem.

 

Dylan's response left me speechless. But only temporarily. I have so many questions I would like him to answer about Check 'em Tuesday and about The Sun's approach to raising breast cancer awareness. I have put a few of my key questions below, and given my own answers, as I doubt I'll be getting a reply from Dylan. But obviously if Dylan does want to take the time to send me his own responses in writing, I'll be very keen to read and share.

 

1. What specifically is being gained in terms of raising breast cancer awareness by using topless models?

 

With regard to raising breast cancer awareness, nothing is gained by using topless models. Simple as that.

 

Breast Cancer Care don't need to use images of topless models to raise breast cancer awareness. Instead they provide the information women need to know to check their breasts and be aware of potential signs and what to do about them. The same applies to Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, Macmillan and the NHS (to name just a few). 

 

 

2. Is it appropriate to use sexualised images of women (as in Page 3 vs Breast Cancer - Check 'em Tuesday) as part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness?

 

No, it is not appropriate to use sexualised images of women as part of a campaign to raise breast cancer awareness. I am speaking here from first hand experience, as a 33 year old woman with breast cancer. Breast cancer awareness has nothing to do with sex, with being sexy, wanting to be sexy, being perceived as being sexy, having your boobs leered at by others etc. Breast cancer is a terrifying, life-threatening illness - which if caught early, can be very treatable. What women need is accessible information and guidance about how to check their breasts, what they should be looking out for, and what to do if they notice anything that  might be of concern. Sexualised images of topless women are inappropriate  (and completely pointless) in this context.

 

 

3. Was it appropriate to circulate that "journalistic call out" asking ideally "young-ish" women to "pose tastefully topless" for The Sun?

 

Nope. See answers to questions 1 and 2 above. And by the way, what is "young-ish" and why have you not asked for people's age and date of birth to ensure you are not following up on responses from girls who are under the age of 18?

 

 

4. How much thought has been put in to the content of the information that will accompany these "tastefully topless" images of ideally "young-ish women" to raise breast cancer awareness?

 

Judging by the call out, we could assume not a lot. Seems you're after any "young-ish" women that are prepared to pose "tastefully topless" - doesn't seem to really matter whether they are breast aware or not, have a family history or not, have had breast cancer previously or not, are perfectly healthy or not (!), have a BRCA mutation or not. As long as they are willing to pose topless and talk about whether or not they check for "lumps and bumps" - that's all that matters.

You do know there's more to raising awareness of breast cancer than discussion about checking for "lumps and bumps" right? You know there are other important signs that could present in the absence of any noticeable lumps or bumps, such as nipple changes?  Of course you do. The reality is that the respondents' knowledge and experiences of breast awareness and breast cancer are going to be much less relevant to your selection process than their head shot and bra size . It's obvious you just want some "real women" to pose topless for you in your increasingly desperate attempt to justify the existence of Page 3. See next question.

 

 

5. Exactly why won't The Sun try and raise breast cancer awareness without the use of topless models (Page 3 models or members of the general public)?

 

Because this is not about raising breast cancer awareness. This is about using breast cancer as a gimmick to try to justify the existence of Page 3. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be stunned by how low The Sun will go with this, so as with my original open letter to The Sun, I am going to end here by encouraging anyone who reads this who hasn't already to please sign the No More Page 3 petition, and share it with others. You'll be adding your name to over 200,000 others saying enough is enough.


PS. To any men reading this, take a few minutes to visit Breakthrough Breast Cancer and learn about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer in men. Breast cancer is much, much less common in men than in women, but does affect around 500 men in the UK every year. 

To everyone who read my open letter to The Sun

Hi everyone,

I've just got back from the hospital after my first chemotherapy session. I'm ok although the nausea is starting to kick in. So please excuse this being quite brief. If I do feel well enough later I really want to get a post written about chemotherapy itself for my new friends who will be starting chemo very soon.

But I did just want to write a message to everyone who has taken the time to read my open letter to The Sun.

On Monday night I came home from my chemo information session at the hospital and decided I wanted my next blog post to be an open letter to The Sun. I really didn't think anyone would read it beyond the people who know me and are reading my blog anyway. I tweeted the link to @NoMorePage3 who retweeted it and the response has completely blown my mind! Over 7,000 people so far have read my original blog post. It has also been republished on Buzzfeed, and The Stir also wrote an article about it! There's now an article on The Debrief too! 

This was all completely unexpected. Overall the response I have received has been incredibly positive and supportive. A lot of people have told me that I put in to words what they had experienced themselves, and what they felt. I have had lots of kind messages of support for my treatment. And I am so very grateful. I want to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU! All of this made me feel very positive at a time when I would have otherwise been overwhelmed by anxiety.

My letter has sparked some debate. I normally like a good debate, but I just don't think I'm up to it right now. My focus has to be on getting well. So I will leave other people to continue the debate that the wonderful people at No More Page 3, and their 200,000 plus supporters, have been having for some time. 

I did just want to clarify a couple of things though. 

First of all, I am not against Coppafeel. Awareness raising is good. I support awareness raising about breast cancer, signs and symptoms, being breast aware. My issue is simply with using Page 3 as part of a breast cancer awareness campaign. That's my personal opinion, I know not everyone will agree. That's ok. This leads me on to my second point....

I generally avoid reading the comments below articles but I have spotted a few having a right go at me for what I wrote. I would just like to remind people that I am just a regular person who started a blog. I wrote my opinion down. I'm not a celebrity, or a campaigner, or a columnist - I'm not someone who normally has a loud voice. I didn't for a second expect it to get the attention it did. I guess it did get attention because it struck a chord. I don't know. Anyway, if you disagree with me, fine. But I'm not going to worry about it - I've got more important things to deal with right now.

For all the support though, thank you. It's meant a lot.

I'm now going to go and take one of the anti sickness tablets that they gave me!

Sarah x

An open letter to The Sun from someone with breast cancer

Dear The Sun
I've been meaning to write to you for a while. My name is Sarah, I live in Leicester, I'm 33 years old, and a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

This is me. I tried to smile for the picture, but as you can see I'm looking pretty uncomfortable. That's because the photo was taken outside the Osborne Building of the Leicester Royal Infirmary today just before I went in for my introductory information session about chemotherapy.

I'm writing to you because "Page 3 vs Breast Cancer - Check 'em Tuesday" upsets me.

I know that many women, especially younger women, don't check their breasts regularly, or don't know all of the symptoms of breast cancer to look out for. (As an example, my own symptom wasn't a lump, it was a slight dent at the side of my nipple.) And younger women in particular often don't check because they really don't think for a second they could be diagnosed with breast cancer - or at least not until they are much older. So obviously I'm all for raising awareness about breast cancer and encouraging women to be breast aware! I'm only 33 and it was as a result of my own vigilance that my cancer has, hopefully, been diagnosed early enough to get rid of. Awareness raising is a good thing.

The reason I am upset is because I don't believe for a second that Check 'em Tuesday is in any way a genuine attempt to encourage more women to be breast aware because of a concern for their health. It is obvious to me that it is a response to the powerful No More Page 3 campaign (whose petition asking David Dinsmore to take the bare boobs out of The Sun has just exceeded 200,000 signatures). Breast cancer is being used by you as a gimmick to try and justify the existence of Page 3. Not only do I not think it is genuine, I also don't think it is an appropriate approach to raising awareness.

Like any other 33 year old woman in the UK, I have a lifelong personal history with Page 3 (despite the fact that I have never bought a copy of The Sun in my life). When I was in primary school, I was Art Monitor. This involved putting newspaper on all the desks before messy art classes. Me and my friend used to take great pleasure in hunting out all the Page 3s and putting them on our other friends' desks. At primary school age it was just funny. Naked was funny. Big boobs were definitely very funny. I hadn't really clocked the fact that it was only women that ever appeared on Page 3.

By the time I was a teenager I was well aware of the fact that Page 3 was only ever photos of topless women because I was regularly embarrassed and made to feel uncomfortable as a result of them. When you're a teenage girl on the bus on the way to or from school, and the man sat next to you is ogling Page 3, what is the best response? I never knew. I'd look away, trying to pretend I hadn't noticed, feeling at best embarrassed, and at worst, unsafe.

In my twenties I became aware of the fact that the images like those on Page 3 of the Sun, along with all of the other sexualised images of women in the media, were making me feel inadequate and ugly on a daily basis. I hated my body. Small boobs, thunder thighs, wobbly arse, pasty pale skin etc etc. I wished I was beautiful and had a better body. I would be so much happier if I did, I knew it.

I'm now in my thirties. I've still got the small boobs (although they'll be going very soon because of the cancer), I've still got the thunder thighs, the wobbly arse, the pasty pale skin and so on. But I feel something now which is much more powerful than the self hatred that can result just from looking in the mirror. I'm angry. I'm angry at the sexist portrayal of women everywhere in the media, and as far as I'm concerned, Page 3 is the worst example of it. Page 3 presents women as objects. The women featured on Page 3 are there for no other reason than to have their bodies leered at by men. The message Page 3 sends out is that beauty is young, slim, usually white, and with big boobs. That message is loud and clear, and personally, even if I had not been diagnosed with breast cancer and actually read The Sun, would drown out any messages about breast awareness on Check 'em Tuesday.

If The Sun genuinely cared about women, and raising awareness of breast cancer, you would do so without Page 3. Instead of linking breast cancer awareness with something that tells women that their bodies are nothing more than objects that exist for the pleasure of men (and that if yours isn't like the one on Page 3 then it's not really good enough) how about focusing on real women who have survived breast cancer? Because there are many inspirational, strong, funny women out there with incredible stories to tell, that could really help other women, promote breast awareness, and not only save lives, but give hope to those who have been diagnosed and who are struggling to come to terms with it or to cope. This includes young women, in their twenties, thirties and forties, who can speak honestly and openly about breast cancer and everything that happens from the first moment that you think something might not be right, through to diagnosis and treatment, and life "after" cancer... Including what it is like to be scarred or lose one or both breasts as a result of cancer. Women who have been through it could give the message that you can still be beautiful after a lumpectomy or a mastectomy. That someone will still love you. That you'll still be good enough. 

I've written this as an open letter because I want to encourage anyone else who reads it, if you haven't already, to sign the No More Page 3 petition and then encourage your friends and family to do the same. I'm not a prude. I have no problem with boobs. But featuring them in a family newspaper (and it is a family newspaper, with regular promotions aimed at children) is not right, and now using breast cancer as a gimmick to try and justify the objectification of women on Page 3 is completely out of order.


Sarah

PS Update 16/09/2014
(No, sadly this isn't an update to say I have had a response!) My incredible friend Rebecca who was diagnosed with breast cancer on the same day as me has also written to The Sun about this. Please read and share Rebecca's letter too.