The Pink October campaign raises awareness of breast cancer and publicizes initiatives for prevention and screening. This year, for the 31st edition of Pink October, spotlight on the Bordeaux association Jeune & Rose, whose motto is that it is possible to fight illness with a dose of humor.
From our special correspondent in Bordeaux,
The Jeune & Rose association deals with breast cancer without taboo and with humor, it is aimed at young women and this is how it created the Pouet-Pouet workshops, to raise awareness of breast self-palpation and teach young people to observe themselves.
Young participants in a workshop try palpation on the advice of facilitators. On a table covered with a pink tablecloth, they feel “ with three fingers » life-size silicone busts with abnormal breasts. A participant feels a hard lump under her fingers, at the level of the nipple. “QWhen the balls are hard as a stone, it’s a tumor, explains one of the facilitators. It’s not mobile, it doesn’t move. Unlike the cyst: since it is liquid, it will move, it will be mobile. »
Abnormal discharge from the nipple, lump, visible veins, all signs to detect a possible tumor that Jennifer, one of the participants, did not suspect. “ I learned a lot of things, especially about the skin, she observes. We see that when the woman perhaps has a beginning [de cancer]the skin may be changed, it may look like orange peel, there may be some sort of inflammation. And I didn’t know that. » Jennifer is not used to feeling her breasts. However, it must be done every month, a week after your period, she learned during the workshop. And she promises herself: “ Starting next month, I will. »
10% of breast cancers are diagnosed in women under 40 years old
Each year in France, 10% of breast cancers are diagnosed in women under 40 years old. “ We tend to call ourselves cancer, it’s more so when we’re older. When you’re young, you’re more carefree.” confides Maelys. She, who participated in the Pouet-Pouet workshop, thought that only older women could be affected by this type of cancer.
With a soft face and blue eyes, Mélanie Courtier is the co-founder of the Jeune & Rose association. She is now 40 years old, but she was struck by the disease at the age of 31, while she was expecting her second child. When you are a young woman, the consequences of breast cancer are unique, she explains: “ All women who have breast cancer have the same problem, but not the same daily problems. We have young women in our association who are students and who discover that they have breast cancer during their studies, so it compromises their studies, it compromises the start of their professional life. There are those who are already mothers and who have to talk to young children about it or manage a baby who doesn’t sleep through the night, going to chemo the next day, that kind of thing, she lists. And there are those who do not yet have a child and who see their desire for pregnancy, their parental plans, either put on hold or completely, unfortunately, sometimes swept away by the arrival of cancer in their lives. »
What is striking about the young women of the Jeune & Rose association is their combativeness, their energy and their humor. They want their experience of breast cancer to be useful to others in a spirit of sorority.
Young & Rose set up the support network called “Les Tétonnantes”which brings together old and new patients through the organization of meetings. These meetings take place physically, but also by videoconferences. They are organized by regional ambassadors. The association has also created a podcast, The Pipeletteswhich allows us to speak “ without taboo of problems » that people who have breast cancer face.
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