Cancer Activist's Approach Is Real, and a Bit Irreverent: ; Disease Ravaged Her Family, so She Went Radical - with Preventive Surgery, Support Group

Summary

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CHICAGO - Lindsay Avner is no shrinking violet. She's a bright pink whirlwind, with a closet full of dresses cut from that very color and a cancer-fighting organization she named for it.

Bold yet calculating, she is the nice girl who knows how to get what she wants, and how to get away with saying things others couldn't, or wouldn't.

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Cancer Activist's Approach Is Real, and a Bit Irreverent: ; Disease Ravaged Her Family, so She Went Radical - with Preventive Surgery, Support Group

"Mind your melons," Avner, who's 28, tells any young woman who'll listen. "Touch your ta-tas."

"Remember to check in with 'the girls' every so often."

It is an edgy approach that sometimes raises eyebrows, at least outside the young demographic she's trying to reach - not to mention the disapproval of some breast cancer researchers who don't necessarily think that self-exams are the most effective approach for detection.

They're missing the point, Avner says. Self-exam is one tool, a way to get her peers talking about a topic they of...

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