This viral photo of lemons could save your life
LONDON -- We might be familiar with the signs of breast cancer, but when it comes to identifying visual symptoms in our own breasts, it's not quite so easy.
Designer Corrine Ellsworth Beaumont has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the visual signs and symptoms of breast cancer using the unlikeliest of devices -- lemons. According to the NHS, lumps are the most common sign of breast cancer, but other symptoms can be seen rather than felt. Ellsworth Beaumont has created a series of images using lemons showing things like indentations, skin sores, dimpling, bumps and redness or heat.
According to Breast Cancer Now, visual signs can include skin dimpling or puckering, the thickening of the breast tissue, redness and heat, an inverted nipple, an unusual discharge and a rash or crusting.
The images from the campaign have reached 7.3 million people in three Facebook posts, according to an update posted on Facebook. Ellsworth Beaumont's personal connection to breast cancer prompted her initial research into the symptoms of breast cancer. "Both my grandmothers died from breast cancer. And when the second one died, I thought I should know more about cancer than I do," explained Ellsworth Beaumont. But her research left her with more questions than she'd had before she even started.
She wanted to know what to look and feel for in a self-examination and when to get a mammogram. But she couldn't find a leaflet or website that presented those answers in a simple and easy-to-understand format. As a designer, she wanted to visualise breast cancer awareness in an interesting and informative way. When Ellsworth Beaumont began delving into her research, she discovered the barriers that exist when communicating with the public about breast cancer. Ellsworth Beaumont discovered that a fear of talking about breasts, the censorship of breast images, and adult illiteracy are obstacles in the dissemination of information about the visual signs of breast cancer.
"A lot of campaigns for breast cancer use texts because using images of breasts is difficult due to censorship," says Ellsworth Beaumont. Ellsworth Beaumont knew she needed to find a "breast substitute" if she were to create any illustrations pertaining to breasts. "I thought about all kinds of euphemisms -- jugs, melons. But I needed something that hadn't been used before," says Ellsworth Beaumont.
"The lemon came up. It looks just like a breast, it even has skin and pores and a nipple. Its interior also looks like the interior anatomy of a breast," she continued.
She spent hours in libraries and doctors' offices learning about the signs and symptoms of the disease -- research that was put to use in her campaign. When Ellsworth Beaumont went along to get a mammogram, she also found out from a doctor that cancerous lumps feel hard and immovable -- something she feels is akin to a lemon seed. "The lemons are a really friendly image. They're yellow, cheerful, not like the sombre campaigns we're used to," says Ellsworth Beaumont. "I think the reason why it's gone so viral is because people can look at the images without having to read anything. In one minute people can learn all symptoms of breast cancer without feeling like they're being educated." Ellsworth Beaumont hopes that people will use the images to educate themselves, share the posters with other women and donate to the campaign so that women who aren't on social media can benefit from the images.
Topics Health
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
