Cancer campaign raises global eyebrows
Date published: 30 December 2014
A group of women with breast cancer has taken the internet by storm by donning eye-catching festive eyebrows to replace their own.
The Younger Breast Cancer Network is a group of women who have all had a breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 45 or under. It was set up by Lydgate mum-of-two Victoria Yates (36).
Mrs Yates, a Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor, was diagnosed in 2010 and two years later set up the online group. Many of the women underwent chemotherapy and lost their hair - and eyebrows.
This Christmas the group decided to supply eyebrows of their own - with festive twists including tinsel, candy canes, carrots and glitter. Using the Twitter hashtag “#ChristmasChemoBrow” the joke quickly became an internet phenomenon. People all over the world shared their wacky creations on social media.
Victoria said: “One of the girls had just started to draw her eyebrows on and we all started joking about how you could pretty much draw anything you wanted. So a few of us started making Christmas eyebrows and we found it so funny we uploaded them to Twitter - and it really took off.”
Mrs Yates added: “Some of the girls are going through a really hard time. They are not feeling themselves and to be going through something like this at Christmas is horrible.
“This is something for them to laugh at and share with each other as well as put a smile on their faces — it’s really powerful.”
The Younger Breast Cancer Network now has almost 1,300 members. To find out more about joining the group visit www.facebook.com/YoungerBreastCancerNetwork.
