CoppaFeel! is the first breast cancer charity in the UK to solely create awareness amongst young people. They educate, encourage and empower 18-35-year-olds to get to know their bodies. We interviewed Sophie Kirby, Health & Services Manager at CoppaFeel! on how they use FireText to remind over 120,000 people (and counting) to check their chests every month.
Tell us a little bit about CoppaFeel!
CoppaFeel! was founded in 2009 by Kristin Hallenga and her twin sister Maren, after Kris was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer at 23. At the time, there was little information out there for young people about breast cancer, so Kris saw an opportunity to tell her story and raise awareness to encourage young people to be proactive about their health.
We use the three E’s: to educate young people about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, encourage them to be regularly checking their boobs/pecs/chest from a young age and empower them so that if they ever notice a change, they feel confident to go and see a healthcare professional and get it checked out.
We like to talk about a serious message in a light-hearted way, empowering people to start healthy habits for life.
What was your goal when you first came to FireText?
Our text reminder service has been running for over 10 years, and it’s one of our core services playing the important role of reminding people to check their chests monthly. We came to FireText from another provider because we wanted to future-proof our messaging service. The platform is quick and easy for our whole team to use, and reliable enough to handle our growing send volumes (for context, we’ve already had over 10,000 new SMS sign-ups since January 2023!).
How do you use FireText?
We encourage people across the UK to sign up to our monthly reminders anywhere and everywhere we can (like on the back of Asda receipts, as part of the Tickled Pink campaign).
We have multiple keywords set up, such as BOOBS on 82228, which makes it so easy to track where sign-ups are coming from. We have also included the option to subscribe to SMS as part of our web app The Self-Checkout, which is really effective.
Once subscribed to SMS reminders, you receive a little friendly nudge each month to check your chest. We keep it light-hearted and playful.
What are your favourite text messages so far?
We often send a funny text, joke or limerick on the 1st of the month to our subscribers to remind them to copp a feel. Here’s some of my favourites…
Remember remember the *first* of November – boobs, pecs, the lot.
We see no reason why checking your chest should ever be forgot.
Nothing ruins your Friday like remembering it’s Thursday.
But nothing gives you that Friday feeling like a little (coppa)feeling.
Opt out? COPSTOP to 82228
Did we catch julying down?
Lying, standing, showering – we’re not fussed.
Our one condition is you coppafeel (…and maybe remind a friend at a push)
We love your messages! What made you choose us?
When researching SMS providers we were really impressed by the variety within FireText’s offerings, including trackable URLs, full delivery reports (which are really easy to navigate), message scheduling and an intuitive online platform allowing ownership for CoppaFeel! staff.
The support from our Account Manager, Alannah, has also been exceptional. Alannah provides bespoke support, really understands our mission and what we’re trying to achieve, and has been really proactive in identifying ways we can continue to evolve and adapt our offering.
What results have you seen with FireText?
Besides the huge awareness it’s brought (one of the first things people mention when I say I work with CoppaFeel! is ‘oh yeah, I get the texts!’), the FireText platform has allowed us to grow and adapt to our increasing subscriber list by maintaining, on average, a delivery rate of over 95%.
Because the FireText platform is so intuitive, it gives us a streamlined, less time-intensive process for sending, monitoring and managing our SMS reminder service. Monthly reporting is easy to access and suitable for our monthly KPIs.
We hear regularly the impact that our reminders have in bringing checking to the forefront of young people’s minds. They encourage routine checking, which in turn makes them more aware of their own bodies and more likely to seek medical advice if they notice anything unusual for them.
And the awareness keeps on growing, with our audience of over 120,000 people (and counting) receiving our monthly reminders to check their chests.
What’s next for CoppaFeel!?
Now we’ve settled into our new way of working after transitioning to the FireText platform in 2022, we’re excited to explore the options available to us, to continue to remain relevant to our audience of 18-35-year-olds.
We love the option of personalisation and envisage exciting opportunities for people to personalise their preferred terms at the point of subscription, i.e. boobs/pecs/chest, so that our reminders feel personal to them.
Sign up to CoppaFeel!’s monthly reminders
Don’t go without signing up to (or sharing) monthly chest-checking reminders from CoppaFeel! To check yourself out, try the Self-checkout here (it only takes 2 minutes).