Rochelle Community Hospital’s Radiology Department launched a new “Know Your Lemons” breast cancer awareness campaign this month.

The campaign is based on the globally recognized Know Your Lemons initiative, which uses 12 lemons to illustrate different signs and symptoms of breast cancer, in an attempt to remove fear and stigma and overcome literacy and age barriers.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. RCH will be visiting local organizations, businesses and schools throughout this month with the Know Your Lemons campaign and encourage early detection of breast cancer in a way everyone can understand.

Breast cancer patients who saw the Know Your Lemons campaign had a 39% lower rate of stage-four diagnoses compared to those who did not, and 94% of participants report feeling more confident about their breast health after engaging with the campaign.

“The Know Your Lemons campaign is a new and inventive way of education for breast cancer awareness,” RCH Radiology Manager Joy Miller said. “Over many years, I’ve felt we’ve been using the same material. We needed to find a way to address people who speak different languages and different age groups. We feel like Know Your Lemons is a way to look at images of lemons and understand what you’re looking at in any language or age group. It brings education back to the basics and makes it a much more simple form of understanding what you should be looking for and what you need to do.”

Miller said RCH wants to get the word out about the campaign and its services in more than just Rochelle, and it went to Oregon High School’s Volley for the Cure volleyball game on Oct. 7. RCH is the only hospital in Ogle County. The RCH Radiology team will also raise awareness at Rochelle Township High School’s Volley for the Cure night and at an RTHS football game.

The Know Your Lemons campaign has the ability to reach a younger population and Miller has seen firsthand how it can reach populations such as high schoolers.

“We need to start talking about this when girls are in high school,” Miller said. “Cancers are being diagnosed younger and younger all the time. If women are waiting to find out this information until they’re 40, it could be too late. We used the campaign at a high school on Oct. 7 and it was eye-catching and we had a younger group of girls approaching us and it was a fantastic experience.”

It is recommended that women start screening mammograms at age 40. If they have a family history of breast cancer, Miller said it’s recommended that they start mammograms at age 35. RCH radiologists recommend yearly mammograms. Anyone who gets a mammogram at RCH in October will receive a Know Your Lemons T-shirt.

Miller stressed the importance of mammograms to catch potential breast cancer as soon as possible and the benefits of having past mammograms on file.

“If we catch it sooner, the treatment is much less invasive,” Miller said. “The survival rate is extremely high if it’s caught at a very early stage. That depends on what type of cancer it is and some things that go into that. We can’t prevent cancer, but when you get one every year, we can spot a change very quickly and act quickly. It’s very important to have those routine screening mammograms every year so when your body has a change, we can detect it immediately.”

When out at events and interacting with the community, the RCH Radiology team enjoys the personal interaction with the community. People share stories of their own or a loved one’s breast cancer fight. The stigma of talking about breast cancer breaks down in those situations, Miller said.

“They want to let us know what went well for them and what the hard parts were,” Miller said. “They want to tell us who they’ve lost in their family. For my staff and myself, that’s what makes it personal. For some reason, when you start talking about mammograms and breast cancer, people open up and they feel like it’s OK to talk about. Talking about breasts can be a taboo thing. It can be embarrassing. People don’t want to talk about it. When we open it up in this scenario, people open themselves up and tell their story and it becomes different. It’s no longer embarrassing or taboo.”

Miller believes RCH being a smaller hospital allows it to have a more personal touch with patients compared to larger hospitals. She’s seen patients request certain radiology techs because they know them well.

The RCH Radiology team is excited to introduce the community to the Know Your Lemons campaign during the rest of the month.

“It breaks down barriers and helps people understand,” Miller said. “It’s something that’s visual. You don’t have to speak a certain language to understand. And it’s something kids can understand. We want everyone to understand and get rid of the stigma around discussing breast cancer.”