Dawn Wilson Goes Above & Beyond - AGAIN
Dawn Wilson has been Know Your Lemons most seasoned educator and tireless advocate for years - 2019/2020 is no different. In the past year, Dawn has taught in 2 schools: Lewis Girls, Ystrad Mynach and Gowerton Comp, Swansea, totaling 2,050 in schools alone. Dawn also taught 80 staff members at Pontypridd High.
The goal for a Certified Global Educator is to aim to educate 250 per year, but Dawn has blown that out of the water.
Some tips for Certified Educators without education or health experience:
"The most important thing is humour. It's a very sensitive subject and for some they may be going through it already. I always start with a little anecdote to break the ice. Easier for me as I can make light of not having my boobs in or joke about how I thought cancer would make me skinny. That first chuckle changes everything. I normally then start with a very animated start. Get everyone to stand up. Get half to sit down. Then say in Wales these are the cancer stats. Half in this room will have a diagnosis. From that point they listen to EVERY word."
“In Wales, the statistics are that if you live to over 70, at some point half of people will get cancer of some kind (skin, breast, etc.”
"Also guess them to guess how many breast cancers there are. At last count I think there were over 75 variations including things like BRCA PD-L1 etc. They never say more than 5. Get them to guess"
"Anything that shocks keeps their attention... so I do that systematically throughout."
A testimonial from Paula, The Employee Assistance Programme and Health & Wellbeing Manager at HR CIPD Association states:
“Dawn was invited to DVLA in order to promote the ‘Know Your Lemons’ campaign. As with all new campaigns it is difficult to foresee how it will go but it was pretty clear from the start that her approach was something different. Dawn conducted quite a number of talks to audiences across the agency and she did these with honesty, dignity and humour. She was very open about her own situation and experiences but her passion for empowering others to get to know their own bodies, recognise any changes and seek help when needed was clear.
Dawn had her audience on board from her opening sentences until the end of the talk, encouraging them to ask questions, share experiences and take control of their health. Her fantastic delivery created quite a buzz of conversation that continued long after she left the Agency. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we know the message got across as it has already prompted some to seek medical advice.
