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At 37, Leigh Hurst is a breast cancer survivor.
As she began treatment, Hurst, from Middletown, Pa., made T-shirts that said "Feel Your Boobies" as a joke for friends and created a Web site about her outlook on breast cancer prevention.
The shirts gained popularity online, and what started out as a joke has turned into a full-time program - the Feel Your Boobies Foundation - that she now runs.
"What's really important is basic breast awareness and being in touch with your body - you know your body best," Hurst said. "My mission is to utilize unconventional methods to reach young women."
So Tuesday afternoon, students were given the chance to "feel their boobies" as part of the campaign, which promotes breast health and early cancer detection.
Campus Health Services, Relay for Life and Zeta Tau Alpha sorority gave out sexual health information.
Although mammograms are recommended for women 40 and older, younger women should self-exam for early detection, said Ashley Fogle, associate director of the Carolina Women's Center.
"By the time that we're in our late teens, we get encouraged by doctors to do exams, but people don't really know what that means," she said. "It makes girls more comfortable about talking about self-exams … and makes it a normal part of life."
Breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer in women. In 2004, 186,772 women in the U.S. were diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hurst said she doesn't think most women perform self-exams. "I think it's important for women to be aware of how their bodies feel - not necessarily following certain steps of a formal breast examination," she said.
Hurst said she thinks the campaign is a fun, fresh way to bring awareness instead of a clinical, medical approach. At the event, students practiced giving breast exams on a synthetic breast that had tumors.
"It's important to start this habit at a young age," Hurst said. "Young women need to encourage their mothers to do it."
She said she thinks today's young woman is more aware about her body than previous generations.
Laura Gifford, Feel Your Boobies' marketing director, said 100 percent of the proceeds fund the foundation's media campaign.
Hurst and Gifford are on a Boobies Bus tour that stops in Atlanta and the University of Georgia en route to a women's conference in Florida.
"I think that it's a really creative, funny way to campaign," said senior Lindsey Marck, whose grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. "If you're going to get people to be aware, what better way to do it?"
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
