Breast Self Exams with the Get In Touch Foundation & Betsy Nilan
Essential Takeaways
- Betsy Nilan is the president of the Get In Touch Foundation, a non-profit supporting breast health, which was started by Betsy's mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she noticed something abnormal during a self exam
- The Daisy Wheel, which was developed with the assistance of scientists and medical advisors, is an 8-step process that makes self breast exams simple
- The Daisy Wheel is easily accessible, friendly, appropriate, and most importantly, FREE to everyone.
My name is Betsy Nilan, and I’m President of The Get In Touch Foundation. There is so much in the women’s health sphere that is taboo to talk about. That’s why when I met co-Founder Lulu from Elix, we had an instant connection talking about our personal experiences with breast health and menstrual wellness. Elix focuses on balancing your cycle with personalized Chinese herbs, stemming from Lulu’s personal and unfortunate experience with menstrual cramping. Like Elix, The Get In Touch Foundation was created as a response to a problem in the women’s health sphere.
The Get In Touch Foundation is a global breast health non-profit that strives to make breast self-exams simple, appropriate and routine for ALL through the Daisy Wheel. The Daisy Wheel is a tool with 8 simple steps on how to perform a breast self-exam and is provided completely free to schools.
The story of The Get In Touch Foundation started 15 years ago when our founder and my mom, Mary Ann Wasil, was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump on her left breast. She was able to identify a change she noticed in her body because she had been performing regular breast self-exams her entire life. Even when her doctor told her it was “probably nothing” and to “come back in a year,” she knew her body better than he did, so she sought a second opinion and was told she had breast cancer in both breasts.
After her diagnosis, she wanted me and my sister to be armed and equipped with the information we needed to take our health into our own hands – so she taught us how to perform breast self-exams herself, since that wasn’t something we would be taught in school. Soon after, she realized how important it was for all young women to have access to this information, not just her own, so she worked with a Medical Advisory Board to develop the 8 steps of the Daisy Wheel.
Though we’ve continued to innovate and improve the technology around the Daisy Wheel as the years have passed, Mary Ann’s original core tenets remain our guiding light: to make sure this information is easily accessible, friendly, appropriate, and most importantly, FREE to everyone.
We have a free program available on our website for school nurses and health educators and just launched our “Daisy Wheel” app which is free for everyone to download to learn how to do a breast self-exam and keep it routine with our calendar reminder.
Remember to do your breast self-exam every month, one week after your menstrual cycle!
Why not take ownership of your health and body?
For more information on The Get In Touch Foundation, visit www.getintouchfoundation.org, and keep BSE routine by downloading the free “Daisy Wheel” app.
This article was reviewed by Dr. Jessica Ritch.
Dr. Jessica Ritch is a board-certified and fellowship-trained minimally invasive gynecologist who specializes in the management of benign gynecologic conditions such as abnormal bleeding, pelvic pain, fibroids, endometriosis, and polycystic ovarian syndrome. She completed residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University, where she was selected as chief resident and received the prestigious AAGL Outstanding Resident in Minimally Invasive Gynecology award.