BC.... The " sexy " cancer

Melg
Melg Member Posts: 174 ✭
edited August 2013 in Health and wellbeing
I feel the need to post after reading a letter to the editor of the Sunday telegraph today that has really upset me.
A very mixed up reader wrote " its up to funding bodies and the government to make sure that the less " sexy" cancers get the attention that they need."
I wonder how many of my pink sisters feel that BC is a " SEXY" cancer. I certainly don't feel sexy as I see the scar running from under one arm, across my entire chest to the other under arm as sexy. I see it for what it is. The scar from the surgery that removed both of my breasts in the hope of saving my life. I understand that BC gets a lot of $$ for research, education etc compared to other cancers but I also know if we had a choice none of us would of chosen the " sexy " cancer or any cancer for that matter.
I'm so disappointed that the writer had no sensitivity for cancer patients and survivors in general. I have written a letter to the editor stating the offence I took to the writers comments.
If you feel the same please take the time to write too
Thanks
Mel :)
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Comments

  • Mich x
    Mich x Member Posts: 1,530 ✭
    edited March 2015

    Good on ya Mel you go get that cretin who could possibly think that any form of cancer could be sexy.  

    There is definitely some very very insensitive tossa's in this world.

    I am sure he has never been touched by cancer and especially breast cancer that he could call it sexy.

    What I am hoping is that there was a blooper in the typing of his comments otherwise I think he needs a bloody good education into the C word and I don't mean cretin I mean cancer.  He has already been educated on how to be a cretin.

    Mich xoxoxo

  • adean
    adean Member Posts: 1,036 ✭
    edited March 2015
    Put this guy in a room with a picture of our scars or what's left of boobs and see if he really thinks we are sexy then. Dick head is all I can say. Adean
  • annie58
    annie58 Member Posts: 108
    edited March 2015

    Less sexy cancer. What a weird thing to say. I cant say that my reconstruction looks sexy at all. Why would the paper publish such an uneducated item? What is an Unsexy cancer?

     

  • Custard
    Custard Member Posts: 417 ✭
    edited March 2015

    We can all relate to the crassness of this!

    Women have gotten off their backsides (Lyn Swinburn et al) to HELP us, and breasts used to be another part of our bodies that were not talked about. Nowadays people chat openly about cervical cancer, prostate cancer and even bowel cancer- well done!

    It would be good for BCNA to invite him to be educated!

    Love you all, sisters in pink, ANGRY Mandy

  • MandaMoo
    MandaMoo Member Posts: 500 ✭
    edited March 2015

    Just to add

    Here are the statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics - from 2002, 2006 and 2011 - There is no improvement in the number of womenand men dying fro the disease in that time.  while diagnosis rates may have increased and proportionately it seems like less are dying,  many new diagnoses are possibly cancers that would never have metastasised anyway.  We are not winning this game at all.

    Breast cancer (C50)
    2 716 people
     
    2 643 people

    		  
    2 937

    people
     
  • Melg
    Melg Member Posts: 174 ✭
    edited March 2015
    Thanks Mandy
    As I write this I am an hour away from my appointment with my oncologist to discuss beginning treatment for my secondary cancer diagnosed a few weeks ago due to a fractured rib that still isn't healing.
    I feel for my oncologist as I'm feeling very disgusted by the writers ignorance so will ask her what cancers she thinks are sexy
    She once told me I should write the book of what not to say to cancer patients. This may just be the comment that gets me starting that book
    Mel xxx
  • MandaMoo
    MandaMoo Member Posts: 500 ✭
    edited March 2015

    Well Mel - I have loads of material for you!  I hope your appointment goes well.  

    let out the anger - great release!  I'd like to know what is sexy about my lung secondaries too.

  • adean
    adean Member Posts: 1,036 ✭
    edited March 2015
    Just sent that idiot an email, felt great. Adean
  • SoldierCrab
    SoldierCrab Member Posts: 3,429 ✭
    This has not changed today a friend received a letter requesting a donation.  Below is her post.... she like me and many of us here are very aware that no cancer is sexy.... 

    I was sent a letter asking to donate to bowel cancer research. That's fine, I do what I can when I can. What annoys me is they say bowel cancer isn't the 'sexy' cancer.......WTF?????? Which cancer is sexy???!!! If they are in fact referring to breast cancer, I can assure them, it is far from being sexy. Some of us are left with only one breast, some are left with none.....how sexy is that? We go through all the ops & treatments, same as any other cancer......definitely NOT sexy. Whoever writes these letters needs to rethink their wording, I am really insulted. It's bad enough having to read, ' imagine how scary a cancer diagnosis is'.....I don't have to imagine it mate, I've lived it.....every day of my life since diagnosis. Yes, I do realise they don't know people's realities that they send these letters to....

  • Zoffiel
    Zoffiel Member Posts: 3,374 ✭
    Well. They say there's no such thing as bad publicity...If this guy wanted attention, he's got it.

    I wonder if breast cancer is still sexy when it's in your liver? I can assume it's not at all alluring when it's in your lungs and only moderately appealing when it sets up in our bones? Let's not even think about it moving to our brains, that may cause us to act in distinctly unsexy ways.

    This cockwomble probably has some vision of women dressed in pink gently succumbing to the disease and 'passing on' with great dignity surrounded by their nearest and dearest. The revolting reality where we are scratching and biting and fighting right up to the point we just can't do any more then dying of bloody starvation may not fit his Victorian image of how a lady should behave. Sexy my arse.
  • SoldierCrab
    SoldierCrab Member Posts: 3,429 ✭
    @Zoffiel you said it well I had steam emitting from my whole head when I read it. 

  • brightspace
    brightspace Member Posts: 457 ✭
    Does this mean that male prostate cancer would be also classed as a sexy cancer ...as if we sufferers dont have enough to contend with ....i hope his mother gran an aunts all are after an apology the air head ungrateful misognosist is sure due a big education 
  • iserbrown
    iserbrown Member Posts: 5,730 ✭
    Dear oh dear! The industry I'm in we struggle to attract fundraising and grants as we're not sexy.
    Sexy is a term that is used not in the context that is offensive or derogatory but that it is strong and powerful in attracting funding.
    I figure some of you might want to disagree with me however I can't accept that the commentary was meant to be disparaging towards us, the sufferers of Breast cancer. 
    Lots of causes don't have the same profile as us.
    http://www.cancervic.org.au/research/epidemiology/forgotten-cancers


    Take care xx
  • Afraser
    Afraser Member Posts: 4,444 ✭
    OK not a well thought through letter, and the use of the words sexy and hot to describe what's considered valuable drives me to distraction. I'm a grateful recipient of the benefits research into breast cancer has brought, but I can understand that many would like to see the same resources brought to bear on other cancers. And that's fair enough. It should never be a competition to see who 'deserves' more treatment than someone else. 
  • InkPetal
    InkPetal Member Posts: 499 ✭
    What a tasteless thing for people to say. Gross.

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