'It’s difficult to market the colon, breasts are extraordinarily marketable’ - The Women’s Podcast

“I have a feeling that part of the reason breast cancer awareness has been so successful is because of the marketability of sexualising it,” journalist Una Mullally told Kathy Sheridan, host of The Women’s Podcast.

“I find a lot of the marketing of cancer awareness quite problematic. Part of that is my own jealously and resentment of having a much less attractive cancer.

“Because it’s very difficult to market the colon, whereas breasts are extraordinarily marketable,” she said.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Mullally was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer in March of this year, and both she and Sheridan have written about their cancer experiences in The Irish Times.

Laura Kennedy, who writes a column about her mother’s terminal cancer called Leavetaking, joined the frank discussion about the realities of dealing with the disease.

“Cancer has a financial impact that you don’t think about unless you’re living with it. Apart from your health, nothing affects your quality of life as much as money does,” said Kennedy, whose mother had to sell the family home due to her inability to continue working.

“In the midst of the chemo and the crying and the chaos was this realisation that we all came to that she couldn’t afford to live, and it just meant that the house had to be sold,” she said.

Also on episode five of the podcast, comedian Maeve Higgins reads a love letter to Co Cork from her new book Off You Go – away from home and loving it, sort of.

“My book is about living abroad, but Cork is always on my mind,” says Higgins.

Later in the episode, Irish Times journalist Laura Slattery hosts a discussion about the way women network with Network Ireland vice president Ciara Conlon and GirlCrew co-founder Elva Carri.

While GirlCrew started as a social network for women, it now blends the social and the professional with GirlCrew Pro events, which feature talks and career advice by prominent businesswomen.

“Networking is a long-term investment, it’s not just about going to a networking event and trying to give out as many business cards as possible. It’s about connecting with people,” Conlon said.

Network Ireland and the Kerry Businesswomen’s Network will host Synergy South West, a networking event in Charleville, Co Cork, on October 23rd. The next GirlCrew Pro event is on October 29th in The Irish Times building in Dublin, and Look the Business 2015, hosted by The Gloss magazine in association with Vodafone, comes to the RDS on October 22nd.