This report is dedicated to Marie Nally who was a member of the project steering group. Her death from breast cancer on the 14th of July 1998 shocked me, the rest of the steering group, and the project team to the core.

I met Marie in 1997 through her publicity for the WEN Petition for a National Action Plan for Breast Cancer. She was very enthusiastic about the possibilities of doing a project like Putting Breast Cancer on the Map and saw the possibilities of developing it to put on the web. Because she was an activist with clear political perspectives on breast cancer, she was an obvious choice for the project steering group. I was a bit in awe of her wicked sense of humour and total irreverence around the whole issue of breast cancer.

She brought a cutting scepticism to the project which was very welcome given the nature of the subject and its social treatment in the UK. She was the first one to guide me through the weird and wonderful world of the Internet, demystifying what was on first inspection a maze of labyrinths to a world of information.

Shortly before her death I met her in Spitalfields market. I walked right past her, not recognizing this thin figure stumbling and clutching market stalls for support as Marie. She took great delight in showing me that all her hair had fallen out and she was on her way to the hat shop to try and buy something colourful to cover her head.

I was scared for her. But at the next meeting she attended she seemed much better. A few days before she went to hospital she rang me to chat about plans to put the project pack and report on the website. The hospital visit was routine she told me, something to do with her lungs. When she returned to the outside world she wanted to meet up and discuss plans. I couldn't believe she had died. We miss her.

This report is dedicated to Marie and to the energy of all the women who participated in this project and to those who live and die of breast cancer without having finished telling their stories or drawing their maps.

Helen Lynn
Project Co-ordinator
June 1999