When it comes to marketing a campaign, it seems Women’s Rugby know how to do it best. As UEA’s own version of the ‘Calendar Girls’, the team’s ‘Let It Hang’ Instagram post was a pivotal moment for their annual fundraising month of October. Raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this campaign is “an every year thing” for Women’s Rugby.  

Affecting 1 in 7 women, breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and accounts for 15% of all cancer cases in the UK alone. “It’s something that can affect all of us,” says Harriet Heathcote-Wells, Community and Outreach Officer, “this year we’ve had someone who has had it, but has come through the other side and she’s still playing.” 

When I meet with Heathcote-Wells and her fellow teammate and Publicity Secretary Amelia Dixon, their ‘Let It Hang’ post had amounted 41,217 views and counting on Instagram. “The insights are incredible”, Dixon states with an evident sense of pride. However, it’s not the only thing the team have got to be proud of. As part of their ‘Let It Hang’ campaign, the team take part in the Colney Lane Park Run, raising funds for Breast Cancer UK through a Just Giving page.  

“We put up a Just Giving page,” Heathcote-Wells tells me, “we started it at like £100 and thought, ‘oh you know if the team can’t make it to the park run that we do as well, they can send that to their friends or family’ and it’s currently at £650.”  

With the team starting with an original goal of £100, Dixon says that the money was raised “within 4 people”. Gradually increasing the goal amount, the team has raised a total of £635. Feeling optimistic, Heathcote-Wells explains, “we’re aiming to get £750 because the park run made just under £250, so £1000 would be amazing.”  

Aside from their impeccable fundraising skills, the main goal is clear when it comes to this campaign. The encouragement to get people to check their chests are what these ladies are striving for. Through last year’s campaign, Heathcote-Wells was inspired: “I saw [the campaign] last year and got checked… I know people that have seen the post have also been checking their chests as well.” 

The bigger focus is searching for early traces. Ironically, this can be hard when the NHS only begin to offer breast screenings (mammograms) to women aged between 50 and 71. Yet, seeing how this has affected the team personally, its apparent that this is something that only encourages this team to campaign more.  

“It’s frustrating,” Dixon says on the notion that screenings are not offered to younger people “we know someone that’s been affected and this is before we even met her. She’s young now, let alone when she had to go through it, so it’s frustrating that it’s not available to us, which is why we do what we can.”  

In addition to campaigning for self-checks, the team have been aiming to “put a bit of a bigger focus on men checking their chests and trying to get male sport clubs to recreate.”  

Last year, the team’s ‘Let It Hang’ campaign had 17 different recreations. Whilst, the popularity of the campaign has soared this year, it’s fair to say that there has been a lack of recreations from other clubs. “It’s hard to recreate…” says Dixon, “We have had a few clubs recreate- rowing was one of them… MMA are doing it with just the male members of their club, so we’ve got a few more to come as well but it’s just so important.”  

The lack of male participation only raises the idea further of a stigma around breast cancer in men, and in trying to fight the stigma, it seems these ladies agree. “Not in a bad way, but I don’t think [men] take it seriously,” says Dixon. With statistics showing that it is only 1 in 400 men that are diagnosed with breast cancer, Dixon states “you just wouldn’t ever expect it to be you, bit it can be you. Unfortunately, it’s more probable that it could be any one of us and men won’t think to check either. I just don’t think they think it applies to them when it does.” 

Running the Colney Lane Park Run last month, the team had a group of 16 run. Whilst some of the team may have done park runs before, for Heathcote-Wells, this was a first. “It was my first park run- my first 5k- I had a pink tutu on and pink shorts.” Dixon adds, “she ran it in like 27 minutes.”  

In order to get as many team members there as possible, some of the club volunteered, dressing up in pink and baking cakes for a bake sale. The team have also developed a relationship with the park run over the last few years, with the Head of Volunteering at the park run posting the team’s campaign post on Facebook, as well as the link to their Just Giving page. “When we do this every year we get that support so we don’t have to start fresh each year when we’re trying to raise awareness,” says Dixon,“we are raising awareness for it and each year we raise more and more awareness and it reaches so many more people because we have organisations like that on board.” 

Speaking to last year’s Publicity Secretary and Development Team Captain, Rebecca Crudge, she says that the “donations that the team have raised this year have been astounding… these donations go to prove how much of an impact breast cancer has across our communities.”  

In hindsight, this campaign and the Women’s Rugby team set an example. With a campaign that holds a message that can affect us all, Heathcote-Wells simply puts it: “a quick check of your chest is so easy to do…” 

To donate please use this link: https://www.justgiving.com/page/ueawomensrugbybreastcancer-1728905716529