Breast Cancer Survivor encourages women to 'Feel Your Boobies'

DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. - It's a word that makes you giggle out loud like a schoolboy, so saying boobies might make you laugh. But checking them is serious business, especially to one group. They’re using a catchy slogan to get young woman to give themselves a squeeze.

Let's face it, no matter where you go, boobs attract attention. That’s especially true if they're plastered on the side of a car parked along a suburban street. Just ask Leigh Hurst, who tells ABC2, "You can't drive the Boobies Bus without getting stopped by lots of people."

The Boobies Bus is a fitting name for the car used by an organization that prides itself on being provocative so you'll be proactive about self breast exams. But forget the stiff medical terms, this group went for something a little more touchy feely with its title. That's why they're called Feel Your Boobies. Hurst is the founder. She explains, "It was really just a funny way of me talking to my friends to remind them to do something that saved my life."
Hurst likely saved her own life seven and a half years ago.

By feeling her boobies, she found a lump doctors had missed. Hurst says, "Finding out that the lump that I felt was actually breast cancer, which of course was nothing I thought it would be, was obviously earth shaking. I didn't expect at 33 to find out I had a disease that was really life or death."

But cancer wasn't the end for Leigh, it was the beginning. Following her diagnosis, she created a charity effort that began with the sale of t-shirts bearing that simple three-word message. Now Feel Your Boobies is an international foundation. Hurst says, "I think it's funny when people say it's so big because we operate out of small garage."

And from that pink garage they're touching women around the world, encouraging them to cop a feel. FYB doesn’t endorse any specific method. According to Hurst, it’s just about knowing your body, "You will learn what your body feels like. Therefore if a change happens, you will know it happened. If you never knew what it felt like normally, how are you going to know when a change occurs that's not normal for you?"

For FYB, it's about shedding the fear of the unknown and taking hold of your health. And they're spreading the message through social media, reaching out to remind one-million women to feel their boobies through twitter ( @feelyourboobies ) as part of National Feel Your Boobies week (October 14-21). Hurst, and her followers, know the message is about much more than a laugh. To many, those three words could save a life.

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