launch of Livkit in the UK
Thanks to self-examination, Olivia Newton-John found her cancer early enough for it to be treated. She now wants all women to do the same and believes that a new kit may help women detect changes in their breasts sooner.
It is named the Liv Kit after her - and acts like a ‘magnifying glass for the finger tips’, by increasing a woman’s sense of touch when checking their breasts for any lumps or changes.
Olivia admits “Breast cancer has been the biggest battle of my life. I will stop at nothing to protect the future health and wellbeing of young women all over the world. Part of my motivation is for my daughter Chloe and her generation. I think that is a natural, instinctive motherly thing to do. I don’t want Chloe or her friends to have to worry about breast cancer,” Olivia explains.
Olivia also hopes to convince the UK’s Royal Mail to introduce a breast cancer charity stamp that has so far raised more that $60 million for breast cancer research in the US and is being launched across the globe later this year.
Following in the foot steps of the stamps creator Dr Ernie Bodai, who knocked on congressional doors at the White House in America for several years before gaining support from New York Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton, the then First Lady, she backed his campaign and the stamp was launched to the US public in 1998..
“Research costs money and in the US the breast cancer stamp has raised nearly $60 million. It is the single biggest selling stamp ever in the US. Imagine what we could do if it was on sale here in the UK?”
The Liv Kit has been approved by the American regulatory body, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is now available in the UK thanks to Good For Health who are launching the product in the UK in April.
Rob McOwan Managing Director of www.goodforhealth.com says “This country has one of the highest breast cancer death rates in the world. Each year more than 40,000 women in Britain are diagnosed with breast cancer and 13,000 die. We want to make a difference, and by ensuring women are encouraged to be breast-aware, this simple tool is great way to achieve this.”
The breast awareness pad is made of two 10-inch plastic sheets containing a silicone lubricant, which is placed on the breast while you examine it.
By being self-aware, women can get to know what is normal for them and using the Liv Aid makes it easier to pick up any small changes. The aid works by reducing the friction between fingers and breast.
It was trialled in a Japanese study of 832 women. The research showed that women who had been properly instructed in the pad’s use detected their own breast lumps almost as frequently as they were found by trained nurses also using the pad.
Self-examination
Nurses were able to detect lumps in each of the 72 women identified with breast cancer, and only one woman missed her breast lumps when self examining with the pad. The device was developed by an engineer whose sister died of cancer in the late Eighties.
He was determined to make it easier for women to detect cancer themselves and realised fingers were more sensitive when they felt through a plastic.
Olivia was approached last year to become the public face of the kit because it was thanks to her examining her breasts regularly that she found a tumour in 1992. She says, “I showed my Oncologist and he thought it was wonderful. That was the thumbs up for me. I was very keen to become involved after that.”
After a mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy, she is now cancer-free, and determined to make other women more vigilant about checking themselves.
She says “Over the years, I have been amazed by the number of intelligent women who don’t self-examine. They say it’s because they’re afraid they might find something but it’s better to know earlier.”
“When the doctors were first showing me how the breast awareness pad worked, they put a little bit of salt on the table and told me to feel it with my fingers. Then they gave me the gel pad and I felt it again. This time, each grain seemed bigger, like sugar.”
“I use the kit every month as part of my routine. Nine out of ten lumps will be nothing, but you have to get them checked.”
I know I have been one of the lucky ones, and I genuinely believe that, with a bit of education, other women can be too. I have moved past cancer now - it holds no fear for me but if I can prevent someone else from going through what I did, I will. “
Recommended by surgeons and doctors
The product is reusable and made of very thin, latex-free polyurethane. It comes with instructions by Dr Ernie Bodai, a breast cancer surgeon who recommends the product. Dr Rajendra Sharma, the medical director of The Diagnostic Clinic in London which specialises in healthcare screening, says: “We have been using the Liv Kit for the past 12 months during examinations in the surgery.
“In the controversial area of self-examination our current opinion is that this simple device makes self-examination much easier and may help women discover problems earlier. Our studies are ongoing but we are hopeful this is an advance in prevention of breast disease.”
Liv Kit is available at leading chemists and departments stores in the UK or www.goodforhealth.com www.figleaves.com or by calling 0870 225 2022. It costs £24.95.