Leigh Hurst, a native of Middletown, was 30 years old, earning a terrific salary as an eLearning corporate consultant, and living in New York City when she first felt a lump in her breast.  She told her doctors, but for the next three years, they routinely dismissed it as nothing too alarming.  “I’d have to put their hand directly on the spot and point it out to them.  And they’d say, ‘Oh, no, that’s nothing to worry about.’  I sort of was pacified by what they said,” Leigh explained. 

 After deciding she wanted to exit the fast lane and move back home to Central PA, Leigh found a new doctor.  He ordered a mammogram.  When the mammogram showed calcifications around the lump, he ordered an ultrasound.  The ultrasound revealed a mass.  A biopsy gave Leigh what she most feared:  a Stage 1 breast-cancer diagnosis.

“I was able to have a lumpectomy with four rounds of chemotherapy, which is 12 weeks, and then I did daily radiation for seven weeks,” Leigh said.  “I felt really good the whole time.  I was able to run. I didn’t get sick or vomit from the chemotherapy, but I was fairly depressed towards the end of it.  Emotionally, it was a shock and it took me awhile to process it.  I wasn’t married at the time and I had things, hopes, I thought about, like would I be able to get married and have a baby.” 

When Leigh hit the depression wall, she found a creative outlet for her frustration and sadness.  In the summer of 2004 and as a joke among her girlfriends, she made some tee shirts with the phrase, “Feel Your Boobies,” emblazoned on them.   “I’d say, ‘You guys gotta feel your boobies.  If these little boobies can get breast cancer, yours can too.’ That was just my way of talking about it with my sense of humor.”

Her humor hit a chord.  As word of the tee shirts spread on the Internet, women and organizations across the country clamored for them.   Leigh saw an opportunity to energize young women, those around age 25, who tend to think of themselves as invincible.  “I started looking at this academically and thought maybe there’s a way to use this to reach people who are like me.  Who never uttered the words ‘breast cancer.’  Use a shirt that’s provocative, that evokes a conversation about doing what these women and girls need to do … If you just feel your boobs, you will know.  You will notice any change in your breasts." Today, Leigh Hurst’s “Feel Your Boobies Foundation” has 2 million followers on Facebook, one of the largest breast-cancer nonprofits on social media.  She funnels most of the earnings from the enterprise right back into the public-awareness campaign.

You can ask Leigh about her triumph over cancer and her ongoing efforts Thursday night at 8 during our Community Forum.  It's part of witf's Facing Cancer Together initiative.  Be sure to call in at 1-800-729-7532 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .