Speaking about diagnosis, denial, reconstruction and body image post surgery, their accounts not only reveal how humour and optimism made a traumatic time more bearable, but also how women can reclaim and revalue both their bodies and their own personal strength in the face of physical change.

This film was made as part of the What’s Your Story? filmmaking training programme which took place across London in 2010. Led by the Documentary Filmmakers Group it’s aim was to teach documentary filmmaking across four diverse London communities.

www.whatsyourstory.uk.com

www.thedfg.org

A busy mum of three, in her late 30’s, running a successful interior design business, Jinny White was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2010. This is her story http://www.bsure.co.uk/insurance/jinny/

Mary represents the nearly 1.4 Million women who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year (worldwide). This video is designed to help women recognise the symptoms of breast cancer and to know when they need to go to their GP – the sooner a woman is diagnosed, the better her long-term chances of survival.

Please share this video with everyone you know – the more people who see this, the more lives we can save.

Figures published by Cancer Research UK show that the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer in the UK has risen from 1 woman in 9 to 1 in 8 over the last decade. Breast cancer rates have increased by 3.5 percent in 10 years with 47,700 women diagnosed in 2008 compared with 42,400 in 1999. In the same period, the biggest increase in diagnosis rates was among women aged 50 to 69 with a rise in cases of 6 percent. Around half of all cases diagnosed were in women within this age category, around 33 percent were in women over 70 and around 19 percent aged 25 to 49. However, survival rates have also risen with two in every three women with breast cancer surviving beyond 20 years and three quarters surviving at least 10 years.

In its article, Cancer Research UK reiterated the commonly known factors that can affect breast cancer risk: lifestyle factors such as diet, alcohol intake and smoking; a woman’s family history of the disease; the number of children a woman has at what stage in her life she has them; the long term use of hormone replacement therapy. In light of the results, Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, said: “Women cannot change their genes but small changes in everyday habits can help to reduce cancer risk. Cutting back on alcohol by keeping within government recommended limits of no more than 14 units a week (a small drink a day) helps. Taking more exercise and eating a diet high in fibre but low in saturated fat can help maintain a healthy weight – which in turn reduces breast cancer risk.”

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