Billy Kerrisk launches breast cancer fundraiser

Fresh out of playing the dominatrix role in the play STiFF earlier this month, Billy Kerrisk has launched a breast cancer awareness fundraiser. It will involve convincing at least 40 Golden Bay women to take a plaster bandage cast of their breasts that will be collectively (and anonymously) exhibited in The White Room Gallery at Lollokiki over Labour Weekend.

The event is part sponsored by the Golden Bay Arts Council, and all proceeds will benefit the Pink Ribbon Appeal.

Explains Billy: “By creating personal casts for this exhibition, I hope local women will be encouraged to have a hands-on approach to monitoring their breasts. We are all shapes and sizes, but regardless of our differences we all need to be vigilant. This exhibition will represent a united front against breast cancer.”

On Thursday 10 she unveiled her fundraising plan, talking to the Rural Women combined meeting at Bainham and giving a demonstration of the casting process on a mannequin, which prompted an informative and open chat afterwards. Her next demo will be in Takaka on Thursday 1 October, 12 to 1pm at the Community Centre.

“Getting plastered is easy and fun,” says Billy. “All a woman needs besides a Pink Ribbon Kit is an hour in a warm room, someone to help apply the bandages (friend, lover, sister, mother or significant other), a drop sheet and old towel (it can get a bit messy!), scissors and Vaseline, plus a container of warm water. Once all the bandages are cut into strips, they are applied wet onto the Vaseline-coated area—from your armpits to wherever gravity takes you.”

As the casts are taken in an upright position, Billy advises the model to keep very still while her “assistant” plasters them. The first two strips go diagonally across the chest to form an extended cross, which gives the cast something to hang by in the gallery. Working quickly from this point, bandages are built up evenly over the whole breast. The edges do not have to be neat, but care has to be taken to define the creases and nipples. A second layer is added the same way as the first. The cast sets very quickly and you will need to check for soft spots and patch them.

After being peeled off gently, the cast takes several days to dry completely and the result is quite amazing. “The Pink Ribbon Kit contains not only the plaster bandage but full instructions on how to get plastered.”

Women must deliver their casts between 15 and 22 October to Billy’s office (David Reid Homes) at 41 Commercial St, or leave it discreetly at the back door if they prefer! Casts will be available for collection by their owners after the exhibition. Just to make sure there’s no mixups, castaways are encouraged to write their birth dates on the inside of their casts.

Billy says she was encouraged to develop the idea to raise awareness after one of her friends succumbed to breast cancer several years ago. “Early detection definitely saves breasts and lives,” she says, pointing out that in New Zealand, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women with around one in nine women developing it during their lifetime. Approximately 600 die from it each year. Also sobering is the fact that around 90 to 95 percent of women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease. Of those women who contract breast cancer, three quarters are 50 years and over.

“Screening mammograms will not stop you getting breast cancer, but they do reduce your chance of dying from breast cancer by 33 per cent”, reports the Breast Screening Aotearoa website. Interestingly the breast cancer death rate in Maori women is at least double that of non-Maori women. One reason put forward to explain this is that the disease in Maori women is picked up at a later stage.

Any woman wishing to participate can pick up a cast set from Tasman District Library .
Suggested koha $10.
All proceeds, including the donation contributed by exhibition-goers will benefit the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation, its programmes and initiatives.

For further information visit the following website: http://gbweekly.co.nz/2009/9/24/getting-plastered-for-breast-cancer-exhibition-and-fundraiser

ENDS

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