13 Oct 2020
Vet uses Breast Cancer Awareness Month and her lockdown-launched initiative to remind profession to perform life-saving checks.
Rachael Buzzel
Job Title
Anna Beber founded Vet Your Breasts after being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year.
A powerful and personal campaign to “vet your breasts” launched during lockdown is now using Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) to drive the message home.
Vet Anna Beber, from HeartVets in Gloucestershire, founded the Vet Your Breasts campaign after being diagnosed with the disease earlier this year.
Miss Beber credits a poster at a swimming pool for “reminding” her to check her breasts and, subsequently, discovering a lump.
At the centre of the Vet Your Breasts campaign is a poster (pictured) featuring the eight main early signs of breast cancer, as well as the direct message to the vet profession: “Vet your breasts whilst changing your scrubs – you could save your life.”
More than 1,000 posters and stickers are already displayed in practices across the UK, as well as some reaching as far as Canada, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
Miss Beber’s aim is to get the posters in every single veterinary workplace as a reminder to her colleagues to spend a few minutes each month prioritising their health.
Vet Your Breasts has also released a video (below) featuring Miss Beber and five other veterinary professionals affected by breast cancer, sharing their experience and urging colleagues to check themselves regularly.
Miss Beber said: “Everyone who works in or around the veterinary profession will know what an incredibly busy and fast-paced profession it is, with very little time to pause. We are notoriously terrible at putting ourselves first.
“I just basically want as many men and women as possible to be given the opportunity to consider what is normal for them and, if something has changed, to get checked out.”
To help spark conversation, the campaign has also launched a baking competition, in conjunction with The Great British Bake Off star and vet Rosie Brandreth-Poynter, encouraging colleagues to bake something pink to share in their workplace and stimulate a discussion around breast cancer awareness.
For more information on the campaign, visit the Vet Your Breasts website.
