About Dawn

After Dawn Wilson was diagnosed with breast cancer, she discovered our 12 symptoms of breast cancer campaign. She realised she had not one but three symptoms. This was information she needed sooner, and she took it on as her mission for every woman in Wales to not miss this information. Her passion, charisma, and unwillingness to take “no” for an answer has led to an incredible amount of people being educated in Wales and beyond.

Astoundingly, Dawn taught nearly 5,000 people in person. Through working with schools and government organisations, she used her unique talents to engage, educate, and inspire people to do more. She also introduced us to local charity Tenovus, to find a way to distribute our Know Your Lemons 12 symptoms posters to EVERY GP surgery in Wales. Before we could do that however, we had to get the NHS’ endorsement for our campaign. So she did! She banged down the doors of the NHS to get them to endorse our campaign, and stood on the footsteps of the Welsh Assembly to launch our campaign across Wales in 2018.

She shared her life and passion for early detection not only with me, or her students, or family and friends, but on ITV with hundreds of thousands of members of the public as she candidly opened up about her diagnosis and struggles, and her wish to prevent it from happening to someone else. She was determined to take these lemons and make serious lemon-aid. And she did. We will never truly know how many women have discovered—or will discover—their breast cancer early because of Dawn.

With Dawn’s permission, we have established a specific fund in her name to continue her work in Wales. To kick off the fund, we are designating $1,500 in her name. It will fund more educators and our campaign efforts to carry out what she has started in schools and with the public. There is still much work left to do and we won’t stop until early detection can become a reality for many more.

With gratitude,
Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont
Founder and Friend of Dawn

Know Your Lemons Foundation
(formerly known as “Worldwide Breast Cancer”)

Title image: Dawn Wilson teaches one of 13 sessions at the DVLA in Wales. She taught nearly 5,000 people across Wales through her incredible skill for teaching and bringing people together.

Top video: Dawn’s amazing legacy

Middle video: Students describe their experience with the Know Your Lemons education session at school, featuring patient Dawn Wilson. Footage courtesy of ITV.

Bottom video: Patient advocate Dawn Wilson has taken lemons and turned them into "lemon-aid" by educating an entire school of girls in Wales. Students learned about breast symptoms and screening, and finished with a "lemfie assembly" where they used social media to get the word out about breast health which reached 187,000 people.