If Your Boobs Look Like These Lemons, It Could Be Cancer
Know the signs.
Getty Images Because my mother got breast cancer at an early age, I started getting mammograms early.
Watching her fight and survive breast cancer made me realize that my boobs were more than just circular sweater lures, they were a part of my body, and I needed to take care of them.
I will never forget that first mammogram and the rows of pamphlets in the waiting room.
Smiling women, calmly staring off the glossy paper, some riding bikes, others enjoying coffee, all eager to share with me the facts I needed to know about my boobs ... and how they could kill me.
They were all totally unrelatable.
What did a woman jumping rope have to do with a lump in my boobs?
That's why this crate of lemons sharing the signs of breast cancer totally caught my eye.
Photo credit: Worldwide Breast Cancer
Instead of hiding breast cancer behind a stock image of a woman eating a sandwich, the photograph transformed an everyday object that I knew into clear and easy-to-understand visuals of the symptoms of breast cancer.
The image was created by WorldwideBreastCancer.org, and I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
In fact, it's already saving lives.
28-year-old Erin Chieze spotted an indentation in her breast, and because she had seen the lemons immediately went to the doctor. Within days she had been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer.
These lemons literally may have saved her life.
Talking about making lemonade out of lemons, right?
The woman who created the lemon images is Corinne Ellsworth.
She's also the founder of the Worldwide Breast Cancer website and mission. She lost both of her grandmothers to breast cancer and like me, when she became proactive in seeking out preventative treatment, was bowled over by how useless the images she saw around her were.
Unlike me, Ellsworth is a graphic designer.
And so the lemons were born.
Photo: Worldwide Breast Cancer
We all fight against cancer in our own way.
Education is the way Ellsworth has chosen to fight this disease, and she's doing it brilliantly. As Erin Chieze can attest, Ellsworth is already saving lives.
You only get one body in this life, and two boobs to go with it.
You owe it to that body to see that it is nourished, cleaned, and cared for in sickness and in health.
And you owe it to yourself to learn the signs of breast cancer. However, it best works for you.
Sometimes with things like cancer, it can be hard to know what to give your body. But with clear campaigns like the lemons, you could actually save your body's life and your own.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is the former Senior Editor of Pop Culture at Newsweek with a passion for lifestyle, geek news, and true crime