Feel your boobs.

Feel Your Boobies is a nonprofit organization trying to reach young women. Gets your attention, huh?

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to speak at Miami University for the Annual Susan G. Komen fundraising banquet, hosted by the Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority chapter.

I’m telling them what I’m telling you now: no matter what your age, please do regular monthly breast self-exams. It is especially important for young women to “get to know their girls” so if something feels suspicious, it will be obvious. I just had lunch with two dear friends from Pink Ribbon Girls who were diagnosed at age 24 and 25. I always feel like the old fogie around them because I was diagnosed at 39.

How did we find our cancers when we were “too young” to have a mammogram? Breast self-exams. I encourage everyone who is female to do this every month. I didn’t do mine regularly, but thank God I did finally do one. It’s quick, easy, free, and it could save your life. How many things can you say all of that about?

 I became so outraged by the government panel’s recommendations NOT to do breast self-exams, that I contacted my local paper. They quoted me and used my story. I cannot imagine one good reason not to check yourself. It just didn’t make any sense.

I used to go around and do talks for Komen and Pink Ribbon Girls with my “boobs in a box.” Yes, they were little silicone replicas of healthy breasts, lumpy breasts and cancerous ones.  I used them (rather than my own breasts!) to demonstrate the proper technique and to show people what a potentially cancerous lump feels like.

Since we don’t have the benefit of the box here, I’ll tell you: it feels like a very hard lump, like a marble. I have fibrocystic (AKA lumpy) breasts and I could tell the difference. About 90 percent of the time, these lumps are nothing, but if you feel anything suspicious, check it out with your doctor.

When I was at the young survivors conference, I came across this great organization that spreads the word to young women called Feel Your Boobies - http://www.feelyourboobies.com/. They don’t promote the proper technique, but at least they’re getting people to feel themselves. I almost bought one of their T-shirts to wear at the talk at Miami but I was feeling cheap for some reason.

If you want to know the proper technique, you can go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s site and download and print out a shower card that shows you how at http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/DownloadBSECards.html.

Tell your friends; tell your daughters, wives … whoever you know who has them: Feel your boobs!