Embarrassing Bodies: "tits out for the nation"

Last night, Channel 4 screened the first episode of their new series, Embarrassing Bodies: Live from the Clinic. A few hours beforehand, a group of women from Cornwall, Mermaid Centre patients past and present, had been tweeting about their journey to Birmingham, where they were going to take part in the show: "we're off to get our tits out for the nation!", "on minibus drinking champagne", "in the green room - no turning back now!" The programme began, and after a brief interlude involving hernias, bums and penises on Skype — the programme invited viewers to call in with their health problems — suddenly there they were. The Mermaids got their breasts out for the nation to show how to look for signs of breast cancer. Viewers at home were invited to follow along, and several were on Skype, interacting with the studio as they looked for unusual lumps, bumps, puckering and creases.

The Mermaids have all been part of a calendar project to raise awareness and funds for a Cornish charity, Made for Life, which supports women with breast cancer, and were quite used to being photographed. But it takes a lot of guts to get your kit off on television in front of millions of strangers. Many of them had already been through surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy; one Mermaid was still in the middle of her chemo. They paid tribute to our friend Malina, who died at only 32 in March; her calendar image flashed up on screen: she's enveloping her three-year old son with her whole body, and even in black and white she looks impossibly radiant. 

Back in the studio, the Mermaids' scars were apparent: I could see the bilateral mastectomy with soaring, arc-shaped scars; origami nipples, cleverly constructed out of skin from the back; perfectly colour-matched areola tattoos. Despite the evidence of all they've been through and all that they've seen, they still have hope. All of us felt very proud of our friends who stood up for something they believe in: they did it because if they manage to get just one person to find a lump early, they may well save a life.