TitsUp is theatre show founded and developed by Farida Anderson MBE and Dr Julie Wray. Both women have had cancer, and they recently put together a funny, frank and open show discussing their experiences. Performed at venues in Manchester  including a show for PBC Paint the town pink Altrincham 2017,  the piece aims to raise awareness around breast cancer and to encourage people who have had cancer feel less alone and resonate with the show so as to feel empowered.  The show is designed to promote living a life with and beyond breast cancer, our experiences have shown too often women can feel isolated and lonely consequently stay silent or decide to deal with things later, as th can put other before themselves or just freeze. 

We believe that the TitsUp performance project could make a difference in a number of ways:

- Helping people with experience of cancer to feel less alone, empowering them to tell their stories through discussions after the show, structured workshops and potentially through the show itself.

- Raising awareness and changing mentalities around cancer by emphasising the human reality of life with the disease, rather than metaphors of fight and battle.

- Giving health professionals an insight into how patients experience treatment (some of the stories in the show discuss difficult experiences with health professionals, and we would like to take the piece to audiences of health professionals for discussion too)

- Encouraging people to advocate for their own treatment and the treatment of friends and family (some of the stories emphasise how hard this kind of advocacy can be in the moment)

Julie and Farida have a unique chemistry on stage and their feedback has been outstanding. They combine improv and structure in equal measures and their passion and emotion is infectious.

Footnote: 

*Julie, started acting lessons in 2016 (due to a second cancer diagnosis) and has had credits with MAD theatre performing in plays at the Lowry, BuryMet, Oxford University and Salford a Arts. Her aspiration is to one day be a professional actress. 

Click here to read more about Farida and Julie’s Manchester Fringe appearances.