Last year Rosie Connolly shared a frightening health update with her followers, as she discovered a lump on her breast. Later, the fashion influencer discovered that it was benign but she earned a lot of praise for sharing the experience so openly online.
With over 350 thousand followers on Instagram, speaking about checking your breasts and always getting anything unusual checked by your GP, was vital information for young women to hear. At the time she said; “I knew it was a lump, I didn’t question myself for a second it was so unusual and I knew it shouldn’t be there.”
After the sad passing of Girls Aloud singer, Sarah Harding this week from breast cancer at just 39, the conversation around women being vigilant is in the public sphere again.
Speaking about this Rosie said; “anytime you hear a story like that, especially with Sarah’s story and with her being so young, it brings me right back to that fear.”
The mother-of-two shared that although she has saved her Instagram stories about her scare as a highlight for others, she is unable to watch them back herself; “because I know I’ll get upset seeing how scared I was.”
“It’s one of those things thats we all wish we were never gonna have to go through, and that we won’t be that person that’s waiting on an appointment or who’s found a lump.”
Continuing, Rosie spoke about the fact she wants to continue speaking openly about the subject, and even hinted she may be working with a breast cancer charity at some point in the future as it is something close to her own heart.
She went on to chat about the fact that even though she is fine, and that her mother has had it, and is also fine “that doesn’t mean you can just park it and walk away.”
“My Mum having had breast caner, its touched my family and me having a scare its no brainer for me. I think its really important for us women to just keep talking about it.”
Rosie also added that it is something all women need to be constantly vigilant about and that even for herself she has to keep reminding to check; “I think even I have kind of forgotten about it because life has gotten busy and it’s reminding me that I need to keep speaking about it.”
“Especially coming up to breast cancer awareness month in October, it needs to be continuously spoken about.”
Finally she added that it’s also about “knowing how to check, what to do and knowing where to go.”
