By Veda Nadendla:
In the year 1991, I Touch Myself– a song celebrating female sexuality, became a hit number for Australian band Divinyls. A decade later, when the band’s lead singer Chrissy Amphlett was diagnosed with breast cancer, she just knew that this song should be the new anthem for breast cancer awareness.
A year after Chrissy lost her battle with breast cancer, some of the best singers in Australia decided to make her dream come true. In a heart moving black and white video commissioned by Cancer Council NSW released over the weekend, ten women show their solidarity towards women with breast cancer around the world. The women in arms include breast cancer survivor Olivia-Newton John, ARIA female artist of the year winners Sarah Blasko and Megan Washington, Baby Animals singer Suze DeMarchi, ARIA Hall of Fame inductee and Amphlett’s cousin Little Pattie, Connie Mitchell, Deborah Conway, Kate Cerebrano, Katie Noonan and Sarah McLeod.
Christina Joy Amphlett passed away on April 21, 2013. After a mammogram and ultrasound initially failed to detect her cancer, she insisted on a biopsy in 2010 after self-examination. Amphlett’s husband Charley Drayton spoke to the Sunday Telegraph ahead of the one-year anniversary of her passing. “She would have wanted us to be more in touch with ourselves and to listen to what’s going on inside physically, and to be more in charge of our destiny and not wait for doctors or advisers to be in charge of us,” he said.
Cancer Council NSW declared the song the anthem for its #ithouchmyselfproject, which has a dedicated website here. This is Chrissy’s message to all women out there, be in touch with yourself and be aware, do not give life a chance to hang up a ‘The End’ board on you. Let Chrissy and her message reach every woman you know today.