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Sussex expert involved in UK breast cancer awareness campaign

A cancer expert at the University of Sussex has written the foreword for a new e-book that shares the stories of women affected by breast cancer – including those who are currently undergoing treatment, women now in remission, and relatives who have lost a loved one to the disease.

Lesley FallowfieldProfessor Lesley Fallowfield

Professor Lesley Fallowfield, Professor of Psycho Oncology and Director of Sussex Health Outcomes Research & Education in Cancer (SHORE-C), is described in the book as “one of the world’s leading experts on oncology survivorship”.

The book, Afterwards: Reflections on life beyond breast cancer, has been launched during Breast Cancer Awareness Month as part of the 2015 Breast Cancer Awareness (BCA) Campaign from The Estée Lauder Companies UK.

In her foreword, Professor Fallowfield writes: “Afterwards explores the disease’s effects both during and after treatment. It illustrates the different ways - some poignant and moving, others positive and uplifting – that women and their loved ones can live well through and beyond a breast cancer diagnosis.”

Approximately 50,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year and current figures suggest that one in eight women in the UK will develop the disease at some point in their lives.

However, thanks to scientific breakthroughs, advances in treatment and increased awareness, 87% of patients now survive for at least five years after diagnosis and this figure is constantly improving.

With so many breast cancer patients now beating the disease, Professor Fallowfield’s speciality, of psycho-oncology, has become increasingly important. It concentrates on the impact that cancer can have on an individual’s lifestyle, both socially and psychologically.

Professor Fallowfield is hailed in the new e-book as “one of a few international figures who have established psycho-oncology as an important subspecialty” and she is praised for her “outstanding and lasting contribution to improving the quality of care received by patients with cancer”.

Professor Fallowfield says: “For some, a breast cancer diagnosis is an emotional catastrophe, for others it’s an opportunity to reappraise many aspects of their lives.

“This campaign illustrates the different ways – some poignant, many uplifting, that women and their loved ones can live well through and beyond a breast cancer diagnosis.”

The Estée Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign, founded in 1992, is currently active in more than 70 countries and funds 185 Breast Cancer Research Foundation research projects worldwide.