Lauren Grabowski is a 3rd year human biology and society major with a double minor in public health and education, making her an ideal student ambassador for the UCLA chapter of Check Your Boobies.
Lauren explains the mission of Check Your Boobies. “Check your Boobies is all about empowering women to be active in your breast health through early detection and prevention in self-advocacy so as a student ambassador we contact different clubs on campus and we ask them if they want to have a Check Your Boobies Party where we bring health educators to talk about checking your own breast and be comfortablewith it. We also bring in a breast cancer survivor to bring in a personal story to the class. I really like that the focus is on health education, prevention, and empowering women to be active in their breast health.”
On April 18th, Lauren and the CYB representative organized a screening of a documentary directed by film maker and breast cancer survivor Allison Gryphon. The documentary titled What the F@#- Is Cancer and Why Does Everybody Have It? shares Allison’s story of her battle with cancer, as well as the story of several other cancer survivors. The event featured a panel that consisted of Allison, Kevin Dowling (colorectal and liver cancer fighter) and the doctors, from oncologists to reconstructive surgeons, featured in the documentary. The panel allowed attendees to ask questions about breast cancer, breast health, cancer prevention, the documentary, and more.
Lauren explains that this event was meant to “give healthy women from all walks of life a fun way to learn what they can do to feel more in control and less in fear about breast cancer. We also give breast cancer survivors a place to share their stories that can save lives.”
Check Your Boobies plays an integral role on UCLA’s campus to promote women’s health and breast cancer awareness. It provides the platform and information to encourage women of all ages to annually get checked for cancer as well as support women who are currently fighting cancer. It even extends the invitation to men to join in the fight against breast cancer by giving them the resources to suppor their mothers, friends, girlfriends, etc. Check Your Boobies hopes to spread awareness among the UCLA community and beyond with the hopes that a little knowledge can go a long way in preventing breast cancer.
Interested in learning more about CYB? Check out their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/checkurboobies
If you would like to learn more about Allison’s documentary What the F@#- Is Cancer and Why Does Everybody Have It? Check out their website: http://www.thewhyfoundation.org/what-the-f-is-cancer/the-feature-documen…