After being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, Glenmore Park local Tamlyn Gresser has started a unique fundraising initiative to ensure everyone is checking their breasts.
Gresser was diagnosed with breast cancer in May after finding a lump out of the blue.
“I’m 33, happy, healthy, fit, working as a pilot, and then I found a small lump in my breast just by chance, I wasn’t even doing an intentional check,” she said.
“The last thing I thought was that it was going to be anything serious, but I went to the doctor, had it checked out, and it turned out that it was stage one breast cancer.”
Following her shock diagnosis, she began asking around and seeing how many of her friends check their breasts regularly, resulting in a stunning response.
“When I got diagnosed, I started asking my friends, ‘Do you check your breasts?’, and all of them said no, and it just hit me what could have happened if I hadn’t accidentally found the lump,” she said.
From here, Gresser became determined to spread the message that young women can get breast cancer, despite preconceived notions, and how important it is to be doing self-checks regularly, with 40 per cent of breast cancers found in this way.
“I think one of the biggest misconceptions I had was that I thought breast cancer was largely genetic, but it’s actually only five to 10 per cent of breast cancers that are,” she said.
“For women under 40, there’s also no free breast screening services.”
The result of this passion is a personal challenge to hand deliver a Breast Check Shower Card, supplied by Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation, to 57 letterboxes across Penrith and Greater Sydney every day throughout the month of September, for the 57 Australians diagnosed each day with breast cancer.
The initiative will hopefully reach a total of 1710 households.
“I’m hoping that I reach someone who really needs to check their breasts or book that screening,” she said.
As far as strategy goes, Gresser said she’ll be starting close to home, but will expand outwards depending on where she is and what she’s doing on a particular day.
“I’m going to have to do it as to how I’m feeling, so the days straight after chemo I’ll probably be quite local and see what I can manage, but my treatment is in Camperdown, so I’ll be going and doing that too,” she said.
“I also thought about using a randomiser on the computer – picking a letter of a suburb and a letter of a street name – but also just trusting my intuition, and hoping it leads me to the right street.”
Now well into her treatments for her own cancer, Gresser said that her mum and friends will be helping her along the way where necessary.
She’s also aiming to raise funds for Breast Cancer Trials and Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.
For more information on Tamlyn Gresser’s initiative in Septemebr, visit http://www.mycause.com.au/p/352536/57-pink-post-drops.
Cassidy Pearce
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.