Currently on Facebook there is a trend for ladies posting selfies (pictures of themselves) without any makeup on. The aim is to bare yourself and then donate to Cancer research (www.cruk.org). Over 1 million has already been donated in the past 24 hours. Breast cancer research UK were very surprised at the sudden rise in donations especially as they didn’t start the campaign.
Dare to bare was a campaign started in 2013. The aim was to encourage women to be sponsored to go to work make up free.
Recently the mantle was taken up by Laura Lipman who tweeted a picture of herself sans makeup with the information of how to donate to Cancer research. ( text BEAT to 709999 to donate £3). The idea appealed to women around the world, and since Lipman’s selfie, over 800,000 women have followed suit.
Every time I log onto Face book there is another new picture of a friend doing their bit for cancer research. Some of the pictures are deliberately funny, some you can tell have been contrived to make the individual look as good as possible, some are barefaced beautiful and some are plain scarey.
There has been a lot of back lash against the campaign.
‘Being make up free has nothing to do with breast cancer,’ is a regular argument. It is true that many women do regularly go without make up, but for some it is as much a part of them as their breasts. I have friends who’s husbands have never seen them without make up. Another truly gorgeous mummy friend only sees enormous pores when she see herself in the mirror without makeup. She doesn’t see the beauty the rest of the world sees. For them, to go makeup free is a big deal and their bravery should be celebrated not flamed.
Another breast awareness campaign is run by The Sun newspaper and is called ‘check em Tuesday’. Every Tuesday for the next 6 months The Sun’s page three model will be photographed checking her breasts. The campaign is aimed at women aged 18-35. The campaign is the brain child of kris Hallenga the cofounder of coppafeel.org.
At age 23 after noticing some worrying changes in her breasts Kris made several appointments with her gp, only to be told her symptoms were hormonal as she was too young to get breast cancer. A year down the line eventually her gp sent her for tests. Unfortunately Kris was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. After undergoing extensive treatment she recently found out that her cancer is terminal. Kris’s aim and the aim of her charity is to raise awareness that breast cancer is not just a disease of the over 50’s. All women should be regularly checking their breasts for changes.
Although I am not a fan of page 3, those models are going to be displaying their often silicone enhanced wares whether I approve or not. In the same way women will be posting selfies whether it is for cancer awareness or not. Is it not better that some good comes from all this publicity? If even one more woman is reminded to check her breasts or one more £1 is raised to fund the fight against this terrible disease then are they not worth while campaigns? I say foundation and mascara off to all those gorgeous barefaced beauties who have taken part, let’s fight breast cancer every way we can.

Portrait of the writer bare self.