The Young Breast Cancer Project

The Young Breast Cancer Project advocates for early detection of disease through breast health education. We elevate young survivors’ stories and forge alliances with the medical community to reduce delayed diagnoses and help save lives.  Rooted in these stories, we conduct and present our community-based research to medical communities to educate them on the unique experiences the adolescent and young adult (AYA) community faces and to advocate for the earlier diagnosis of disease.

Despite the shift in guidance from breast self-exams to "breast self-awareness" (BSA), our research of over 450 young breast cancer survivors reflects 54% of young survivors have never heard of BSA.  Non-profits, sisters, mothers, friends, and physicians (with time) have been trying to fill this health gap.

Our research also found:

62% of young survivors were not educated on breast health by a physician prior to diagnosis. Without proper education, many women do not know how to advocate for themselves, especially if informed they're "too young."

Nearly 50% of our survey participants experienced delayed diagnoses due to a medical provider’s failure to order imaging or biopsies after evaluation. 

WE BELIEVE IN EARLY DETECTION OF BREAST CANCER

WE BELIEVE IN BREAST HEALTH EDUCATION

WE BELIEVE IN REDUCING STAGE IV DIAGNOSES

WE BELIEVE OUR VOICE MATTERS

WE BELIEVE OUR RESEARCH WILL HELP THE CONVERSATION

Your support will help our Executive Director and our team expand these critical programs to close the health gap:

BREAST CANCER PORTRAIT PROJECT

Young women diagnosed before the age of 40 are invited to share their diagnosis story and sit for a portrait session. Each participant receives a free gallery of images and is encouraged to keep sharing her story.  Almost 100 photoshoots have taken place thus far.  The individual stories collected have served as the dataset from which our research has grown.

COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH

Our collection of stories has enabled us to create exceptional research questions focusing on age disparities and delayed diagnoses in the Young Breast Cancer community. We surveyed 455 AYA survivors in the United States to define and quantify the difficulties young women encounter facing a breast cancer diagnosis.  Our poster was presented at AACR Scientist-Survivor conference in April 2022. Our Executive Director, Missy, has been accepted into the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer in Young Women (ACBCYW), as well as the California Breast Cancer Research Program’s (CBCRP) Quickstart Program.  We support Missy in representing our voice as we seek to better communicate with medical professionals to create campaigns for earlier diagnosis of disease and access to treatment.

BREAST FRIEND NIGHTS

An engaging and educational event for "our friends". Here we utilize live storytelling, the Portrait Project gallery and our signature "Boobie Booth" to educate our friends, family and coworkers on breast health.  we have held events in San Diego and Los Angeles in 2020, and hope to expand our massively successful events to NYC, DC, San Fran and Chicago.  We find these events to be incredibly healing for all individuals impacted by breast cancer. 

STORYTELLING + ADVOCACY

Every effort of the YBCP is built on direct feedback form our community.  We use survivor stories to define and quantify ways in which young women have slipped through the cracks and we deliver this feedback to 1) other young people, 2) physicians, 3) researchers 4) friends and family to inspire early detection in the next women. We are inclusive of all who align with our mission.