About Us

Last March 2006, two women, Sallie Floyed and Chrystalla Spire, met while recovering from radical breast surgery at The Royal Marsden Hospital.

Chrystalla was having a mastectomy following a diagnosis of breast cancer the previous year:

‘As a result of my own experience, and my experience in hospital, I realised that, despite huge public support and sympathy for the sufferers of breast cancer, mastectomies were still a taboo subject. While the press is full of women who have had “boob jobs”, and it is a subject openly discussed, women attempting to discuss their mastectomies encounter embarrassment and a reluctance to explore the issue: I hope the calendar will change that.’

Sallie was having 2nd stage of reconstruction following a double mastectomy that she had undertaken 6 months previously for preventative reasons (following a genetics team evaluating her risks based on family history):

‘I think there are a number of scared, anxious and vulnerable women of all ages who don’t know how life is going be post-op. Naturally, they will be worried about what they will look like, how they will be viewed by others and about their sexuality as a result. I hope that we can eradicate some or all of these anxieties in doing the calendar and show that you can still be just as much of a woman: strong, feminine and confident, despite losing one or both breasts.’

So Chrystalla and Sallie conceived the idea of creating a calendar filled with images of women who have successfully progressed through the surgery, to inspire other women and families facing the same experience.

They, together with Carolyn Richmond, set up a new charity to undertake the calendar project, and to create a support system for women facing mastectomies.