“The hardest part was losing some of my hair including my brows and lashes” Living with the big C, our mummy’s journey
As I’m sure you’re aware my lovelies it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month during October. We want to help raise awareness by sharing our family’s journey with cancer that helped shape the early days here at Flicker. Please, please make sure you check your boobs regularly; if in doubt get checked out 💖 This month every lash sold we will be donating £1.50 to Cancer Research UK.
This subject is very close to our hearts with sadly losing our amazing Nana in 1992’ to breast cancer and our beautiful mum being diagnosed last year.
It’s a difficult subject to discuss, and this has been a tough post to write emotionally and mentally. But if even the tiniest bit of this helps someone else either inspiring you to get checked, to realise you’re not alone, or for those who are comforting friends and family in a time of need - this is for you; we are here with you on this journey, as we are by our mummy’s side during this time. Eloise & Ellie xxx
Your body - You understand it.
Our mummy, had noticed a small spot on her breast in June of 2021 - knowing something wasn’t quite as it should be she went to her doctor; it was around October after additional visits that it was properly diagnosed as breast cancer and also leukaemia. As a family we were devastated, not just one type but two. If the situation taught us anything it’s that we urge people to become familiar with their bodies - you after all know it best and if you feel something isn’t normal for you have it checked out, and make sure you are heard - it could save your life.
Life after diagnosis.
Mummy has now completed her first round of chemotherapy, which was tough. Four months of dodging the “other” big C COVID meant the treatment took longer than expected and as with many people unfortunately caused a variety of side effects, sickness, tiredness, hair loss including lashes and eyebrows. During all of this time all the family have come together to support mummy by helping her with her house work, making dinners and spending as much time with her as possible. As well as busy mums ourselves we were working on our lockdown project “Flicker” unsure if our pre-covid 9-5 jobs would ever be the same again we set off to try something new - Mummy’s devastating news focused our direction during the early days - could it in fact help people in positions like mummy? It helped shape our vision to produce lashes that are more natural in appearance, subtle and realistic but ultimately to make them easy to apply. To help build women’s confidence and build on what they have.
Our mummy explains how they helped:
“Out of the whole diagnosis and treatment I found one of the truly hardest parts was losing some of my hair, including my brows and lashes. Luckily my lovely girls helped me with their new lashes which are incredibly natural, comfortable and so easy to put on with the adhesive liner. I have extremely sensitive eyes due to a previous operation but I have had absolutely no problem using these”
The fight continues
The first round of chemo was followed by a mastectomy and lymph node removal, then 3 weeks of radiotherapy. Hair was slow to come back; its now been a year since her diagnosis and we are so happy that in some small way we helped mummy not only through family love and support but to help her keep her confidence and appearance during the treatment with our lashes.
“My hair started to grow again thankfully once I finished the chemo, but I am disappointed at how slowly it is growing – only about an inch in 3 months. Flicker lashes help to make me feel more confident ”
She now has another 14 cycles of chemo and will hopefully be finished by the summer of 2023. It’s a long journey - mummy’s our inspiration everyday, still out walking the dogs and taking life in her stride; we are incredibly proud of her strength, resilience and resolve during the process which has been fraught with delays and complications brought on by the pandemic.
Our promise of love and support
This is our first year, and even though there’s a special time in the year dedicated to awareness for this disease, Ellie & I at Flicker plan to make this a full time pledge to help those with cancer, any type; its sad to think that so many of our families will be in some way affected by this - breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the UK with statistics reporting that 55,000 women are diagnosed each year and 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 1 in 2 with some for of cancer during their lifetime. A truly staggering statistic. The annual Pink campaign aims to increase the awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and hopefully one day a cure. We aim to also do all we can even now as a small company to do our part in raising awareness, and supporting those in need.
We should all be checking our breasts regularly and the fabulous Cancer Research UK explains here what to look for, symptoms and when to see your GP. This information helped our mum act quickly and get the treatment she needed to beat the cancer. Our lovely Nana also had breast cancer and very sadly her treatment was unsuccessful.
We love you, this is for you mummy & Nana xxxIf you are part of a charity and would like to speak to us about our products and how we could help please get in touch ellie@flickercosmetics.com
