Lots has been going on recently, and if you don't follow us on Facebook or Twitter then you won't know about any of it!
I've neglected you all recently - my time has gone into moving to Bristol, starting university and (most boob-related) starting up the Uni Boob Team (UBT) at BIMM Bristol! I have the makings of a social media guru when it comes to updating my life and UBT events, but I'm afraid blogging takes a little more time and effort. Please forgive me - I'll try harder I promise!
Firstly, I'd like to talk about the set up of BIMM's FIRST EVER Uni Boob Team! BIMM, for those of you who don't know, stands for the British and Irish Modern Music institute. They have campuses in Brighton, Manchester, London, Dublin, Berlin and Bristol, which is where I am! When I got my place in the summer of 2013, they didn't have a UBT at all. The following spring I heard about CoppaFeel's UBT campaign, applied, and got the position of leader! You all know how excited I was, as I wrote a blog about it. Read that here.
BIMM Bristol is still currently the only BIMM campus to have a UBT. Hopefully if this year goes well, that'll change, and even more universities up and down the country will get Uni Boob Teams. What we do is so important, no students should be missing out!
Task number one was: FRESHERS FAIR.
Luckily for me, I already had one team member. I met Georgia on my first night in Bristol, and over the week I told her more and more about CoppaFeel! She obviously liked what she heard, and asked to join the team. I was so happy, I remember squealing and giving her a big hug, and we've been good pals since!
Georgia watched Kris's documentary, as I did last year (see this blog), and became even more emotionally invested. We discussed our plan of action for BIMM's Freshers Fair, and at 9am on Friday 2nd October we left our accommodation armed with a giant boob and a suitcase full of CoppaFeel! merchandise.
The Freshers Fair could not have gone better. BIMM is a very small university compared to others in the city, and we couldn't predict the numbers of people who would show up. But, fortunately for us, quite a lot of students did come and we got to have lots of booby-chats with our fellow freshers!
We told them all about CoppaFeel!, our messages and our aim - to end late detection of breast cancer. We got lots of interest, and we were certainly the brightest stall in the room! We took many pictures for our Facebook page, and got people to wear the boob - a strange costume to some, but a great way for us to encourage young people to get copping a feel!
We also educated students on knowing the signs to look out for, as well as making sure to say that normal is different for everybody - if YOU know what normal feels like then you will also know if something is wrong.
At the fair we got some signups for new members to join our team (more on that soon!) and got people to signup to the text reminder service: text 'UBT BIMM' to 70500 for a FREE MONTHLY TEXT to remind you to CHECK your boobs and pecks!
All in all it was a very successful day for me and Georgia, and I'm glad I had her there to run the stall with me and spread the CoppaFeel! message. The balloon pump I bought also broke, so she blew up ALL the balloons! Thanks Georgia! And thanks to BIMM for having us there.
Task number two: #BreastMates.
A few days before the Freshers Fair I received a very exciting email from Sinead. Sinead is in charge of the UBTs: she trained us, and helps us out all the time - just a great gal really (we love you, Sinead!).
In the email, I was informed of a new campaign being launched by CoppaFeel! with the help of ITV, ITVBe and Lorraine. And, to cut a long story short, we got to do some live filming for Lorraine on ITV on Monday 5th October! (Try and spot us in THIS EPISODE, you only have six days to watch!)
#BreastMates is the campaign, encouraging young women to check their breasts and to nominate a friend to do the same. It's about checking and communicating - a friend could save your life by nominating you to copp a feel. It's so easy - why not nominate a friend today?
Find out more about the campaign here: http://www.itv.com/breastmates and take a picture/tweet and use the hashtag #BreastMates on social media, so CoppaFeel! and ITV can keep track of the campaign online.
Me and Georgia were up at 6:30AM and set off for the University of Bristol's Student Union, The Anson Rooms. We met Clare and Grace from UBT Uni of Bristol, Sinead was of course there, and once Kris arrived we got started with ITV!
The Anson Rooms was set up with a giant pink teepee and had a festival vibe. Kris produced some CoppaFeel! coloured bunting to finish off the decor and then we went live.
Lots of waving, smiling, and then we got down to the serious stuff. Dr Hilary was our anchor, and he spoke back to Lorraine in the studio and out the audience about the importance of checking your boobs. Kris told the viewers her story and what the campaign was about, and there was also word and a video from two Boobettes.
Boobettes are women who have had breast cancer themselves, and they now work for CoppaFeel! by educating young women on the importance of checking and knowing what to look out for. You can book a Boobette to come to your school/work; if you're interested in doing that, go here.
Filming for live TV is not as glamorous as you'd think, and it includes a lot of waiting about and not getting enough sleep, but it was extremely fun. It was great to meet Kris again, and to be a part of such a wonderful charity.
My friends and family watched to see me on their TV screens, not only nice to hear, but also good to know that people did actually tune in and will have heard about the campaign.
I am loving this boob-journey already, I'll be back soon with another booby-bloggy.
Caitlin xxx
*LINKS BELOW*
CoppaFeel!:
Website
YouTube
Kris's Twitter
Kris's Blog
ITV #BreastMates:
Campaign
News
UBT BIMM Bristol:
Uni Boob Team:
Website
