Elizabeth Hurley has spoken from the heart about her "enormous sadness" over losing her grandmother to breast cancer.
As the Global Ambassador for The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign, the actress shared her expertise and knowledge with HELLO! for our Breast Cancer Awareness Month special. The mother-of-one revealed she is "so proud" of her campaigning efforts and hopes her grandmother would be too.
Speaking openly about her own experiences with self-checking and mammograms, Elizabeth has an important message for women everywhere…
How did your grandmother's breast cancer diagnosis affect your family and what advice can you give to other families going through the same experience?
Elizabeth: That my grandmother didn't talk about her diagnosis, is a source of enormous sadness to me – and I feel that if she'd been diagnosed today with what we know now, with the advances they've made in treatments, with diagnosis, with awareness, the way we talk about it, I feel it could just have been different for her. For anyone going through this experience, my heart goes out to them as it is an awful experience for any family. There must be a time when we don't talk about any breast cancer awareness anymore because there isn't breast cancer.
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What do you think your great work and campaigning would mean to your grandmother if she could see everything you have done to raise awareness for breast cancer?
Elizabeth: I am so proud to have spent over two decades travelling the world discussing the importance of breast health, early detection, and raising funds for research, education, and medical services on behalf of The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign.
Elizabeth says her breast cancer campaigning is her most meaningful work
I'd like to think that my grandmother would also be proud of the work I've done over the years. I am so passionate about raising awareness about breast cancer and my role as Global Ambassador for The Breast Cancer Campaign continues to be my life's most meaningful work. Over the years, I've seen the powerful impact The Campaign has had on the global breast cancer community, including ground-breaking progress made through the research, and advancement across science, treatments, and care.
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What message would you like to give to women all over the country to inspire them to check their breasts and get their mammograms?
Elizabeth: Evelyn scheduled my first mammogram for me as a 40th-birthday gift. And she made me promise to have regular mammograms after that, and to always think of them in June, my birth month, which I do. Evelyn preached self-detection for those too young for mammograms. She always said women must be taught to check their own breasts—every month, religiously.
Waiting for the result of anything medical is always a bit nerve-racking, but at least if you self-check and have regular mammograms, if something is found, it hopefully will have been caught early.
Why is it important, more important than ever, to raise awareness for breast cancer?
Elizabeth: Evelyn Lauder co-created the Pink Ribbon and founded The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign as she recognised that women around the world were dying from breast cancer, and no one was talking about it.
Now, three decades later, it's encouraging to see that great strides have been made in breast cancer awareness, and it's not the taboo it once was. More people are talking about it and awareness levels and access to information about breast cancer have significantly increased. But we still need to do more to improve self-checking rates as we know that early detection saves lives.
Has your grandmother's experience got you to check your breasts regularly and what was it about your grandmother's story that inspired you to get involved with raising awareness for breast cancer?
Elizabeth: When Evelyn said that her mission was to have the world talk about breast cancer, while also finding a cure, it resonated with me because my grandmother had been diagnosed at a time when she was embarrassed to even talk to her doctor. She found a lump herself, like many women do. But because she was too scared and too embarrassed to tell her doctor for some time, more than a year, by the time she got help the cancer had spread. Despite a mastectomy, it had spread to her liver, and it was too late to save her. I regularly self-check and I encourage all women to do the same. Early detection saves lives.
By being involved in the breast cancer awareness The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign every year, what differences do you hope to see in the future for women?
When in 1992, Evelyn H. Lauder co-created the Pink Ribbon and launched The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign, she inspired a global movement around its mission to help create a breast cancer-free world for all. Over the last 30 years The Campaign has been committed to supporting the global breast cancer community – and that commitment continues today. We have made such a difference already, but there is still a way to go.
The mother-of-one revealed she is "so proud" of her campaigning efforts
I want women to feel empowered and confident to self-check. But also recognise that they're taking back control over their bodies and that self-checking is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. You are responsible for checking your own breasts and are responsible for going fast to the doctor if you have a problem.
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How has your breast cancer campaigning saved the lives of your friends?
I shared a post on Instagram about self-checking once, and two friends, both in their 40s, who had not checked themselves, both checked after seeing my Instagram. Both found lumps, both went to the doctor and were diagnosed with breast cancer and have now gone through treatment. The irony is you don't want to check because you don't want to find anything. Bottom line is, that's why people don't check isn't it? And yet if you find something, you're more likely to survive.
This year is the 30th anniversary of The Estée Lauder Companies' Breast Cancer Campaign – it is now more important than ever to encourage every body from every community to break down the barriers to self-checking and be breast aware. For more information, visit: www.elcompanies.co.uk/BCC
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