Women get plastered to raise cancer profile

HAYLEY GALE/The Nelson Mail

SOMETHING POSITIVE: Billy Kerrisk displays plaster casts of breasts in the exhibition, Put Your Best Breast Forward, at The White Room, Lollokiki, Takaka. More than 100 women volunteered to have their breasts plastered for the exhibition, designed to increase awareness of breast cancer.

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More than 100 women have "celebrated their differences" by having plaster casts of their breasts made and displayed, anonymously, in an exhibition in Takaka designed to increase awareness of breast cancer.

Among the white casts on display at The White Room, Lollokiki Gallery are a few from breast cancer survivors, which show surgical scars resulting from single and double mastectomies.

It was losing a friend to breast cancer that motivated exhibition organiser Billy Kerrisk to think of a way to do something positive to increase awareness of the disease, which is the most common cancer in women, and the leading cause of cancer deaths in women.

She hoped that maybe up to 40 women would volunteer to "get plastered" for the exhibition, but has been "blown away by the response", giving out 152 plaster cast kits over the past few weeks. Of those, more than 100 had returned them for display.

"There's been a real generous spirit to take part and get the word out," Ms Kerrisk said. "We're all shapes and sizes, but regardless of our differences, we all need to be vigilant. In the eyes of cancer, we are all a target.

"If this gets people talking and thinking about it, then it's a good thing."

Many women had got together in groups to plaster each other and this had made them feel more comfortable about their breasts.

"Some really heart-warming stories were told in those groups," she said.

Ms Kerrisk also enlisted the support of a general and breast surgeon at Nelson Hospital, Ros Pochin, who stresses that improving awareness is vital to improving the chances of surviving breast cancer, and who talked to women who had had breast surgery.

Timed to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the exhibition, which is partly sponsored by the Golden Bay Arts Council, will raise funds for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation Pink Ribbon Appeal.