51. Sam Jackman - co-founder of Boost Innovations

Wild Card - Whose Shoes?

Hey, it’s great to be back! 🍋🍋🍋

So, for all those who enjoy the ‘Wild Card - Whose Shoes?’ podcast, welcome to Season 2!

It has been lovely to hear from so many of you, saying that you are missing the podcast and asking when it is coming back. Well, here it is!
At the beginning of last year, 2023, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And not for the first time.
Being quite a private person, but also quite out there, in terms of Whose Shoes events, social media, hosting a podcast and so on, I found it hard to know how to handle that. As you may imagine.
I was trying to manage my illness and treatment alongside deadlines from my ‘real’ work, so when I reached episode 50 I decided that made a very neat if rather long, Season 1!

But I have been raring to go with Season 2 and wondered how best to re-launch.
I found the perfect podcast guest – and today is the perfect day to post our conversation – 4 February 2024, World Cancer Day!

Sam Jackman is an inspirational woman - a multi-award winning entrepreneur and a disruptor. Sam offers a breath of fresh air (literally!) to women who have had a mastectomy due to breast cancer. She is rocking the world of conventional prostheses through her innovative Boost products.
Boost products are 100% inspired and designed by women for women.
We need to make sure that women hear about them!
It is an extraordinary story

• the lived experience of Sam’s Mum
• finding a huge gap in the market - and doing something about it!
• courageous entrepreneurship
• rocking the world of conventional solutions
• putting women first

And all from the deepest reaches of rural Cornwall.
Sam is highly entertaining. We are joined briefly by Blue, Sam’s emotional therapy dog!
It is a story with a difference, making a difference and I am very proud to support ‘We Wear Boost’ innovations, who have made a BIG difference to me personally. Thank you, Sam!
Key link
Breast Forms | Lightweight Breast Forms UK | We Wear Boost
Daughter creates design after mum's mastectomy - BBC News
Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋

• If you want something amazing to happen, you may have to do it yourself!
• Don't listen to the naysayers
• We need to bridge the 'us and them' divide between clinicians and patients
• Co-design with the people using the product will NOT fail
• Be inspired. Achieving this from Cornwall was NOT easy!
• Men in suits are not the experts on breast forms and nipples! ;-)

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If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.
I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.
Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Chapters

1. ‘Wild Card - Whose Shoes’ is back. Where have we been? 💜 (00:00:00)

2. Welcome, Sam Jackman. Entrepreneuse extraordinaire! (00:04:03)

3. Mum was the inspiration. Her prosthesis was uncomfortable, heavy, horrible. Surely we could do something better? (00:04:20)

4. Breakthrough. Why did it have to look like a breast? It could be anything! Boost was born! (00:05:00)

5. Reimagining, what a breast form needs to be. What is Boost? Sam explains (00:07:24)

6. Funding challenges! “No one will buy it!” and “Where’s the nipple?“ say the men in grey suits! (00:09:00)

7. User design brings a whole new experience. You don’t need a giant nipple!! (00:12:16)

8. It’s a man’s world. The history of the prosthesis… (00:14:42)

9. Society needs to move on! Like it has done with other parts of the body – e.g. a leg prosthesis (00:15:32)

10. To pocket or not to pocket. That is the question. Removing barriers! (00:16:32)

11. A paradigm shift. Promoting wellbeing, not stereotypes. Be proud of your breast cancer journey, don’t try and normalise everything and reinforce stigma (00:17:50)

12. Empowering women to go beyond the standard, NHS beige prosthesis. Offering choice! (00:19:06)

13. We all love purple! 💥 (00:21:33)

14. Getting on with life with minimum fuss! (00:22:35)

15. Filling a yawning gap in the market (00:23:23)

16. ‘Us and them’. The women love Boost! The clinicians have never heard of it – and do they want to? (00:24:00)

17. It’s hard for the NHS to be innovative (00:26:38)

18. Let’s hope this podcast can make some waves – please share it! (00:27:56)

19. Women deserve to know what is available? One size does not fit at all! Literally, in this instance! (00:29:20)

20. Gill and Sam meet in Exeter. Boost starting to get High Street recognition. (00:33:13)

21. Woman’s hour! Deborah Meaden! The endorsements are getting stronger (00:37:33)

22. Pop it out and pass it round. Peer support. Gill gets brave!! (00:38:19)

23. Increased openness decreases stigma and improves breast cancer outcomes (00:39:17)

24. Meet Blue, the emotional therapy dog (00:39:53)

25. And this is all happening … in Cornwall (00:41:25)

26. Local and ethical; minimising waste (00:42:45)

27. Scaling up – with a difference (00:43:51)

28. The traditional silicon gel breast forms end up in landfill (00:45:55)

29. Wonderful people making a difference, reducing stigma, including in Indian communities. Well done! World Cancer Day! (00:46:56)

30. Please spread the word! Reduce stigma! Encourage people to come forward for their screening (00:48:39)

31. You can follow Boost on Instagram and Facebook! @WeWearBoost. (00:50:10)