Every day in the UK 58 women and people with gynae organs are diagnosed with a gynaecological cancer and 21 will die. The Eve Appeal are focused on funding awareness about prevention and early diagnosis.

Cancer prevention starts in the earliest conversations with children about their bodies. Know Your Body is the Eve Appeal’s programme aimed is plugging this gap in relationships and sex education (RSE) through a series of lesson plans split into three topics;

1) Anatomy

2) Menstrual health

3) HPV and cancer

The UK Government has made Relationships and Sex Education a compulsory part of the curriculum. It expects children to learn these topics at certain points during their education for their physical and mental well-being though life. Often these subjects are touched upon and not explored fully, leaving children confused and with unanswered questions.

Know Your Body aims to bridge that gap and support children’s learning so they become fully informed about their own bodies- to know what is normal for them so they can spot when something doesn’t look right and know what to do.

Know Your Body was created to reach young people with the greatest barriers to healthcare access. We have developed these lessons embedding cancer-prevention focused RSE that is age-appropriate, interactive and engaging.

A pilot delivery of these lessons will take place through 115 workshops in some of the least-served schools in Lambeth, Lewisham, Hackney and Southwark, reaching 1000s of young people.

Research by The Eve Appeal found that half of the women and people with gynae organs surveyed didn’t know the gynaecological anatomy when shown a diagram. When something goes wrong later in their life and they need to be checked by a doctor, it is important that children can describe their symptoms and where they are to a healthcare professional.

We want to educate and empower children so they know their body and feel comfortable and confident talking about it if they need to seek help.

Children can start their period as young as 8 and many will get their first without having any knowledge of it. Often menstruation is not talked about, and this creates feelings of fear and shame. A basic understanding of what will happen to them before they go through it will make the experience less scary. We believe the more we talk about periods, the more we are teaching children that it is important to be able to talk about health, without feeling shame or embarrassment, and that this could one day save their life.

That’s okay, it is important for a child to be prepared before going through one of the biggest changes they’ll experience during puberty. Knowing what to expect makes it less worrying and embarrassing when it happens.

We believe that all children, regardless of their gender, should have the opportunity to learn about female anatomy and menstrual health, even if they do not have the same anatomy or will never experience periods. Having knowledge about what others feel can help them understand and empathise with their loved ones, and involving everyone in the conversation helps reduce stigma around the subject in our society as a whole.

We have designed the lessons with the goal to educate every child regardless of their background. Know Your Body lessons are age-appropriate and inclusive in terms of gender, race, religion/faith, age, life experiences, and they are FGM and trauma informed. Inclusivity is embedded in the Know Your Body resources through learning objectives, language-use, content and recommended teaching practice.

Over half of the young people surveyed by the Sex Education Forum who identified as transgender, lesbian, gay or who reported having a physical disability felt their RSE was 'bad’ or ‘very bad’.

Through research and peer review by RSE, medical, teaching and safeguarding professionals, we’ve made it our priority to make every child feel represented and spoken to when they’re given the Know Your Body lessons.

7) What has HPV and cancer got to do with knowing your body?

HPV is a very common virus, that 80% of us will get in our lifetime. There are over 100 types, and some of those types can increase our risk of certain types of cancer. Children aged 12-13 in the UK are offered a vaccine against certain strains of HPV, to help reduce their cancer risk. The lesson explains what the HPV vaccine is, it’s benefits, why it is offered to children and what their rights are, so that they can make informed decisions about looking after their health and cancer risk.

You can access all of the lesson plans, films and activities on the Know Your Body website. The resources page also links to further reading if you want more information.

The Sex Education Forum found that 1 in 4 young people hadn’t had any RSE from parents and carers; those who did often reported just one ‘big talk’ or a few separate discussions. Only one in six (17%) had regular discussions with parents and carers about RSE.

Talking to your children about their bodies openly and regularly can make all the difference to their future health and wellbeing, our Know Your Body resources are here to help you open up those conversations.