Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Bosom buddies spare no blushes in charity battle
BOOBS, jugs, melons, whappers, bangers, the twins! All terms a group of friends from Dundee want us to start using and stop blushing over as they launch a video campaign – inspired by one mum’s courageous response to her breast cancer diagnosis.
The tongue-in-cheek video to promote Jog For Jugs, a breast cancer awareness campaign, features the friends along with Lorraine Kelly and other Scottish personalities including model EmmaLouise Connolly, actress Joanna Vanderham and presenter Lee McKenzie.
Becky Chapple, 28, from Broughty Ferry, is the driving force behind the campaign following her mum’s breast cancer diagnosis last October.
“This campaign is because of my mum not about her,” Becky explained. “Lots of people get cancer and lots of people’s families have to deal with it.
“Of course it has been hard. Cancer is impossible to deal with in normal circumstances but, just like everything, it is so intensified and complicated by Covid.
“The hardest part for me is that when something devastating happens in your life the first thing you do is want to phone your mum.
“Sometimes you just have to go to your best friends for a hug and a movie because it does all catch up with you. But that’s not an option at the moment.
“So I channelled my thoughts and feelings into something else. I asked some close friends if they would support me and the rest is history, here we are.”
Becky continued: “The line on the video is ‘whatever you call them, check them out’. It doesn’t matter if you call them boobs or melons or jugs, if you want to make it funny or whatever. They are all breasts and you can get cancer in them.” The Jog For Jugs video and social media campaign hopes to encourage others to check themselves regularly and seek medical support straight away if anything feels abnormal.
The campaign has become a labour of love for the friends, who had been working and living away from Tayside, and each other, when the pandemic brought them back together.
When Covid first hit, Becky was managing a hotel in Cornwall. Her furlough time at home made her reassess her life – and move home to Dundee for good.
“I was furloughed from November and I came home for the duration of my mum’s treatment. That was quite a unique experience being at home with my mum going through chemo and surgery,” she said.
“The next part of her treatment is upcoming. I think this campaign has been a fantastic distraction for both of us.
“The pandemic realigned my thoughts and feelings and made me realise how happy I was in Scotland. Just being here, by the sea, it made me realise how much I miss it. When the world stops you think: ‘what am I doing?’
“I am not going to stop people getting cancer but we have to help people find it sooner. And we have to normalise checking your boobs. We have to talk about it: friends, sisters, brothers, nephews, it’s not just women, anyone can get this disease.
“You can see the changes and feel the changes if you look for them. With internal organs you don’t always know. But you have an opportunity to catch this kind of cancer. This campaign is about awareness raising for me, but it’s about raising funds too.”