Idaho woman working to help people know signs of breast cancer

It has become a real global phenomenon.

One woman is going the extra mile so that people know the signs of breast cancer.

She also hails from the Gem State!

Corrine Beaumont is the designer of the infamous photo “Know Your Lemons“, which features an egg carton full of lemons, with the different shapes and symptoms for signs of breast cancer.

She made the design in 2002 but the photo went viral in January.

One-hundred and sixty billion people is how many people the campaign has reached so far.

Beaumont not only designed the photo, she also founded Worldwide Breast Cancer, in 2014.

After losing both of her grandmothers to breast cancer, Beaumont decided it was important for her to understand what it is.

She had three questions: When should she start getting a mammogram?, was she at risk for breast cancer and what does a lump feel like?

“So, I was using jugs and cones and melons and any two shapes I could kind of put together that could kind of be a stand-in for the breasts, but non of them were very accurate,” Beaumont said.

Beaumont said she went to a library and searched for answers. She eventually left with more questions and was determined the one question that was still lingering: “What does a lump feel like?”

At the time, she was pursuing a master’s degree in graphic design and decided to make this a design project.

She was trying to find a way to demonstrate it by not using real photos because it can be difficult to look at for some.

“That’s when I thought about using a lemon. It resembles a breast without having to be a breast and if you cut it from navel to navel, it resembles the anatomy of a breast,” Beaumont said.

Beaumont visited an imaging center in Idaho Falls. There, she looked at mammograms, talked with radiologists and even had a mammogram (just without the radiology), to understand what it was like for someone who has been diagnosed.

When she was talking to the mammography technician, she asked the woman to describe what a lump felt like.

The technician tried to compare it to various fruits and then mention that it was hard like a lemon seed.

“All of a sudden, it was like the metaphor fit together,” Beaumont said.

Jeffrey Hancock is the medical director at the Teton Cancer Institute in eastern Idaho.

He and Beaumont have been working on ways to improve communication between doctors and breast cancer patients, especially patients with metastatic breast cancer.

“As we sit down with the patients, we give them answer questionnaires and then after we’re done discussing with them the diagnosis and the pathology of their tumor and the various treatment options, then we reassess that knowledge,” Hancock said. “We provide them with a number of tools, including cards, handouts.”

Now, the Lewisville-native lives in London and is making it her goal to reach every single woman across the globe.

“It doesn’t require a high literacy rate, which means it can be shown anywhere in the world,” Beaumont said.

Beaumont said she wants to do more than have people look at a picture; it is important for people to educate themselves and Beaumont said her website shows it all.

“Things like their risk type, so they know how often they should be getting screened and also the steps for detection,” Beaumont said.

Saturday, Beaumont and her team officially launched her “Know Your Lemons” Challenge. It is similar to the ice bucket challenge but with a twist of lemon.

There are three things you need to do to complete the challenge:

1. Educate yourself.
2. Donate to the cause.
3. Make a lemon video or lemon smile (which requires you to bite into a lemon and pucker up for breast cancer) then post it to social media – Facebook, Twitter – with the hashtag “Know Your Lemons”.