To raise funds for research and raise public awareness, 12 associations have produced a calendar where patients pose naked.
Getting naked to raise public awareness of the disease. Twelve associations fighting against Guillan-Barré syndrome, Crohn’s disease, meningitis or multiple sclerosis, have joined forces to create a calendar in which patients have agreed to pose naked. Designed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Health Communication Festival, it has been available since the end of November for €20, entirely donated to the benefit of associations, revealed The Parisian Monday, December 16.
The objectives are multiple: to raise funds to advance research, to challenge politicians, but also to improve “the management of the quality of life of patients and their families”, explains to LCI Claude Touche, the president of eVeDrug, a company specializing in the vigilance of health products at the origin of this operation carried out by Health Actors.
The patients were photographed in black and white by Nathalie Oundjian, who was able to put them perfectly at ease and help them accept their bodies after their illness. “In the photos, there is a lady who had her breast removed, a gentleman who lives with a pocket. There is nothing vulgar, nothing shameful, we just want to say: hats off! And to always go further”, says Olivier Jérôme, one of the participants, survivor of testicular cancer and president of the association. CerHom (for the end of cancer and the beginning of man). “This calendar is a bit of a crazy thing for interlocuting in a good way and getting important messages across,” he enthuses.
“I felt beautiful”
“What I missed was talking to people my age who were going through the same thing as me,” says model of the month for July, Laure Guéroult-Accolas, who was living alone abroad when breast cancer struck her. “To break the isolation of people affected by cancer, to allow them to find the right information and to facilitate their daily lives”, is it written in the caption of her photo, where she poses naked with boxing gloves.
From now on, Laure directs the association Patients in network. The latter fights against breast, lung and gynecological cancers, it consists of an exchange network where information on diseases circulates, as well as addresses and useful advice for patients and their relatives.
“I stripped myself bare to share with people affected by lung cancer and break the loneliness”, explains Emmanuel Gervier, from My lung cancer network, to Medisite. “The fact of getting naked to express this cause pleased me a lot”, he develops in the video produced by TV health actors. “I felt beautiful”, adds Éléonore Piot de Villars, of the Lympho’sport association which “guides you with passion in the field of health and therapeutic sport.”
If this initiative affects you, you can buy the calendar on the website ofeVeDrug.
#PatientsCalendar ?Feedback on the experience? @afaCrohnRCH @AFVD2006 @CerhomAsso @DrawM @Fibromyalgia_En @LFSEP @LYMPHOSPORT @reseauKsein @countermeningitis @AssociationSkin @triplettes_les @eVeDrugClaude @actorshealth ???? @nathoundjian #FCHealth #HealthTv
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— Stéphanie Chevrel #Infosanté (@s_chevrel) November 29, 2019
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