Breast Cancer Care, the first breast cancer charity to break with the pink tradition and ‘go orange’, has today unveiled a powerful advertising campaign with images of women revealing their mastectomy scars.

The campaign aims to portray the message that it can be possible for women to find confidence about their bodies after breast cancer and that there is support available. The posters will appear mainly on outdoor media sites, and an accompanying film hosted on the charity’s website will be promoted through social media.

The charity was moved to create the campaign after conducting research among those who have survived the disease about how they felt about their bodies after having treatment.

The study of more than 600 people revealed that three in four felt less confident about their bodies after breast cancer. Just over half felt uncomfortable undressing in front of their partner and 64 per cent of single people said their cancer had had a big impact on their feelings about forming an intimate relationship in the future.

Samia Al Qadhi, the charity’s chief executive, said nearly 500,000 people are living in the UK after a breast cancer diagnosis, and many of Breast Cancer Care’s service users say they find it very difficult to talk about this aspect of their cancer.

She said she hoped the campaign would prompt people to contact the charity for information and support to help them come to terms with their feelings about their body changes.

“We want to bring this issue to light and get people talking about it,” Al Qadhi sad. “This campaign shows that it is possible to find confidence after a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

Breast Cancer Care has also published a new patient resource written by nurse professionals. Your body, intimacy and sex covers common patient concerns and experiences and contains a prompt list to help people raise their worries with healthcare professionals.

The poster campaign and accompanying film have been created by Arthur London, the agency which also carried out the charity’s recent rebrand that marked a departure from pink. The poster campaign cost £25,000 and the film was produced pro bono.

The charity’s media spokeswoman Sophie Howells told civilsociety.co.uk that the charity had a very small budget to buy media and so would be focusing on outdoor poster sites in areas where the charity delivers services such as Glasgow, Sheffield, London and Cardiff, as well as public washrooms.