Liz Hurley has encouraged women to check themselves for breast cancer – and warned some are not because they “are scared that it’s self-indulgent to spend time on themselves”.
The British actress and model, who has been a global ambassador for the Estee Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Campaign for 30 years, told Sky News’ Jacquie Beltrao the demands of everyday life mean women “always put ourselves last”.
“We’re doing stuff for kids, for husbands, for mothers, for in-laws. There’s so much that we have to do that we tend to come last,” she said.
Hurley, whose grandmother died of breast cancer, said she finds it helps by thinking of breast checks as a way to “keep ourselves healthy in order to continue to take care of everybody else”.
That way, it “doesn’t seem self-indulgent or taking time away from something else, it seems really important”.
Checking one’s breasts “takes two minutes”, she added, or “about the same length of time as brushing your teeth”.
More than a third of women in the UK do not take up the first mammogram appointment they are offered, and a recent study of 500,000 women from Sweden found a similar non-attendance rate there.
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More than 11,000 people die from breast cancer every year in the UK, or 31 each day, Cancer Research UK said.
That makes it the second most common form of cancer death, accounting for 7% of all cancer deaths, the charity said.
Asked whether some of the messaging had “fallen on deaf ears”, Hurley said attending screenings, which are free on the NHS, is “definitely advised”, and she suggested all women should familiarise themselves with their breasts.
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In the past, the illness was seen as “a disease for older ladies. And we didn’t understand that younger women also get diagnosed. That’s been a lot in the news lately”, Hurley said.
“There appear to be more women, younger women being diagnosed. And that could well be one of the reasons is that people are more breast aware, more self-aware.”
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She told Ms Beltrao, who is a breast cancer survivor, people “have seen you on television talking about breast cancer”.
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As a result of more awareness, she said, women have “begun to understand that it can never be too early to start checking your own breasts and to familiarise yourself [with them].
“When you’re younger and you’re not yet having regular mammograms, you do really have to be aware of your own breasts to be able to see if there’s a change, feel if there is a change and go to your doctor.”
