Katie

She’s what you get when sass and baking are combined.

She likes fat cats, and they like her.

When the girls at work presented me with this excellent opportunity to take my clothes off for a good cause, I couldn’t say no. According to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, one in nine Canadian women are expected to develop breast cancer at some point in their life. That’s a lot of ladies. So buy a lot of calendars.

Katie Stewart is a ham. When she is not wearing red lipstick and batting her eyelashes, she is busy studying English literature and reading naughty books. Katie’s breasts suddenly appeared over the summer of grade 8. Since then, they have been an inseparable team. Katie enjoys riding her bike, eating cheese, and drinking wine with the ladies. She is honored to be a part of this calendar.

Jen

Jen is our Jill of all trades. She’ll make you look pretty and then take your picture. We like her. A lot.

She tells us to make love to the camera, I think she has that down pat. She's a minx.

When Tash aproached me to be involved in this calendar, I couldn’t wait to get my hands wet with the project.
This project came at a time that brought me very close to the subject. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, and was successful with treatment. She is still fighting her battle, but is on the upswing. During a routine mammogram was when they detected something unusual. It was a shock to us all that it was breast cancer since she is the first person in our family to ever have it. It just goes to show you that mammograms do make a lot of difference in detecting it, and as uncomfortable and scary it is to have, everyone should be making appointments to get checked.

Since I have some creative talents on my side I was able to help out with organization, photography and makeup. We have had an absolute blast doing the photo shoots, and since I am such a poser I couldn’t wait to get on the other side of the camera to my shoot! LOL

When Jen isn’t getting Natasha’s ass in gear, making us look pretty and taking our pictures, you can find her baking tasty treats and dodging TSN camera men.

Oh, and you should check out what her and her sister Amy do here.

Second Shoot Day Photos

Clothes?? I guess we should put them back on. This isn't Ontario.

For your viewing pleasure, some candids from our shoot at Wreck Beach.

YAH! We like hotdogs!!

“Lady X”

Lady X is extremely shy but wanted very much to support breast awareness and this calendar.

A medicine buddha cures the illness of suffering using the medicine of his teachings for all who enter my yard and stop to notice him

I remember my first mammogram. Although it was just a check up, and I have no history of breast cancer in my family, I will never forget the overwhelming emotions I experienced being topless with my breast being clamped down by the most horrendous machine and tears streaming down my face, palms sweaty, nervous as hell. Why was I crying? Because as a woman a large part of my identity is wrapped up in my breasts. The thought of having breast cancer, just the thought!, was too much. Society as a whole has lived with this for decades but we still do not have a cure. We are making improvements but we are not there yet. When Natasha approached me about this calendar I had to do it – if for nothing else than to eliminate a bit of the fear, uncertainty and doubt that occurs in what is a routine exam that helps detection. Through awareness and understanding we can hopefully remove this as a ‘taboo’ topic and deal with it head on with certainty and facts.

When Lady X is not letting us frolick topless in her back yard for some of the calendar shoots she can be found … well, we just can’t say. She is kinda shy.

Natasha

She’s a little bit Brit, a handful of Canuck and slice of Southern Belle.

This gal is camera shy.

Coming from a family of all women (my poor father), it is one of my greatest hopes that none of us ever have to endure this disease. There have been close calls, but fortunately it worked out in the end. Close family friends haven’t been as lucky, two of whom lost their brave fight, a few have lost their breasts in the process, while others have been fortunate to make it through. It is for the brave men and women who have fought, are fighting and will fight this disease that we are putting our best breasts forward.

When Natasha isn’t here blogging or putting together and posing in calendars, you can find her running away from crows and singing in the bathtub.

Ema

She’s Bulgarian and she means business.

The calmest I have ever seen this woman.

I wish and hope that the day is soon when this horrible disease has a cure. I think that every woman out there should do a little bit to help. I was inspired to join the group watching for years women in my family fighting to raise money for a cure and never giving up. Every little contribution and act of support brings us one step closer to achieving this.

When Ema isn’t posing for calendars you can find her behind the camera. Or, singing and dancing to some Bulgarian music at 7am in the office when no one else is there.

Second Shoot Day

Well, we managed to get another three girls shot this past weekend. It was quick and painless, just the way a good waxing should be..uh, I mean just the way a good photo shoot should be.

Friday night I set my alarm for 6:30am, or so I thought. My phone rang at 7:45am. I apparently set my alarm for 6:30PM, I hate when I do that. Thanks to Ema P I was up, showered and ready within 25 minutes. I know, I was impressed too.

We made our way to Wreck Beach to get my shot done first and arrived around 9am. Fortunately there weren’t too many people. This being said, having two topless girls hold light reflectors, a photographer and another topless girl frolicking around is sure to get some attention. We had one person in particular that was eager to see what was going on. Ah well, isn’t anything people on Wreck Beach haven’t seen before.

Next up was Alicia. We took her to a deserted parking lot where we thought we were safe from onlookers. That theory was botched when a few trucks of construction men passed by and then a Suburban full of tourists stopped to ask where UBC Farms was. I guess they saw Alicia holding a map and figured she must know…

Emma was the last shoot of the day. We did this in my apartment, so the only people who may have had a nice view are my neighbors on the 17th floor in the surrounding buildings. More power to them if they took out the binoculars to see what was going on.

Only 3 more girls to shoot and 2 group shots left. Then off to the press!

There is talk of putting together a launch party in October…it’s dependent on time. Fingers crossed! If anyone knows of a venue that would be happy to have us, please let me know.

An Interesting Article from the CBC

Thanks Alicia for raising this article.

“Pathologists get new guidelines in wake of botched breast caner tests”

The Canadian Association of Pathologists released new guidelines Wednesday that call for pathology test results to be verified by an external, independent laboratory.

“This plan corrects the fact that for far too long pathology systems have been neglected,” said Dr. Jagdish Butany, president of the Canadian Association of Pathologists. “This action plan will give them the support they need.

“Most importantly, it will give patients a system they can trust.”

The announcement follows a number of controversies across the country involving inaccurate test results. The most prominent has been lab errors in Newfoundland and Labrador, which likely led to incorrect treatments for almost 400 breast cancer patients between 1997 and 2005.

At least 100 women died after their test results were misread, and some waited years before learning their initial tests had been botched.

An inquiry into the Newfoundland tests is now underway.

In New Brunswick, a public inquiry began on May 5 to determine if breast and prostate cancer tests were routinely misdiagnosed at a hospital in the eastern part of the province after an audit detected issues with the work of a pathologist employed there.

Butany announced the five-point plan in Ottawa:

• To demand certification for each prognostic test and predictive test performed by a medical laboratory.
• To have pathology test results verified by an external, independent laboratory.
• To disseminate the Canadian National Checklist for diagnostic immunohistochemistry. The checklist includes test validation, staff training and competency assessment, standardization of operating procedures and equipment maintenance.
• To create a body separate from government that will accredit all labs in Canada.
• To receive immediate and ongoing support from all levels of government to address shortages of trained staff.

Butany added that had the guidelines been in place in 1997, the errors in Newfoundland and Labrador may not have occurred. He said they largely stemmed from the fact there were too few technologists and pathology professionals to meet demand.

He said that until recently, pathologists have been operating “on a shoestring,” and that government funding is critical to prevent future tragedies.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/07/16/pathology-guidelines.html?ref=rss

A Friendly Reminder…

Have you squished your boob lately?

If you don’t know how to do it, the ACS gives these instructions:

How to Examine Your Breasts

• Lie down and place your right arm behind your head.The exam is done while lying down, and not standing up. This is because when lying down the breast tissue spreads evenly over the chest wall and it is as thin as possible, making it much easier to feel all the breast tissue.
• Use the finger pads of the three middle fingers on your left hand to feel for lumps in the right breast. Use overlapping dime-sized circular motions of the finger pads to feel the breast tissue.
• Use 3 different levels of pressure to feel all the breast tissue. Light pressure is needed to feel the tissue closest to the skin; medium pressure to feel a little deeper; and firm pressure to feel the tissue closest to the chest and ribs. A firm ridge in the lower curve of each breast is normal. If you’re not sure how hard to press, talk with your doctor or nurse. Use each pressure level to feel the breast tissue before moving on to the next spot.
• Move around the breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone.(sternum or breastbone). Be sure to check the entire breast area going down until you feel only ribs and up to the neck or collar bone (clavicle).
• There is some evidence to suggest that the up and down pattern (sometimes called the vertical pattern) is the most effective pattern for covering the entire breast without missing any breast tissue.
• Repeat the exam on your left breast, using the finger pads of the right hand.
• While standing in front of a mirror with your hands pressing firmly down on your hips, look at your breasts for any changes of size, shape, contour, dimpling, or redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin. (The pressing down on the hips position contracts the chest wall muscles and enhances any breast changes.)
• Examine each underarm while sitting up or standing and with your arm only slightly raised so you can easily feel in this area. Raising your arm straight up tightens the tissue in this area and makes it difficult to examine.

Feel free to get the man or woman in your life to do this for you!

Alicia

Alicia is our old school beauty. She has a rad ride.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

When it comes to supporting an issue as important as this one, I have numerous reasons why. The biggest being that a number of family members have suffered the affects of this disease, including my mother in-law, who luckily has successfully finished battling breast cancer.
The fear of me one day having to live through this kind of trauma is very scary, so here I am putting my best breasts forward!

I am a young woman whom bashfully poses for calendars and enjoys everything aged.
Old music, old wine, old cheese, old cars, and old stories… I even prefer my men a little distinguished .