There’s not many people who love a challenge more than Queen of the Jungle Giovanna Fletcher – and now, she’s heading off to Mont Blanc on her latest trek for breast cancer charity CoppaFeel!
Having been a patron since 2017, CoppaFeel’s CoppaTrek! with Gi will see Giovanna and a group of fundraisers head off into the French Alps for a multi-day trek. The money raised will go towards the charity's lifesaving work – with the trek already having raised over £350,000 of their £450,000 goal.
'The terrain for every trek has always been so different, and we've never had one like this,' Giovanna tells Grazia. ‘Actually, I’ve been to Chamonix once before having kids – so it would have been about 11 years ago – and I have very bad memories of being stuck up a mountain. It’ll be quite nice to go back when there's no snow on it!’
Joining Giovanna on the trip will be hundreds of volunteers, alongside some other celebrity captains – including Pete Wicks, Kelsey Parker, and Candice Brown, all of whom have trekked before. ‘Once you get the bug for it and you see how it affects people, you just want to keep doing them,’ Giovanna shares.
‘When people come together at the start of the trek, they have all the nerves and worry about not really knowing what they’re letting themselves in for, or they don’t know how they’re going to be when they’re surrounded by over 100 people. To see how everyone changes during the week and what that journey is for them is the most special thing ever.’
Breast Cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel! was founded back in 2009 by twin sisters Kris and Maren Hallenga. At just 23 years of age, Kris was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer – with her story inspiring a community to change lives. The charity’s lifesaving aim is to ‘educate every young person in the UK that checking their boobs isn’t only fun, it could save their life.’
And it’s an aim that’s more important than ever. In the UK alone, it’s estimated that 1 in 7 women and about 1 in 100 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
Any challenge involves pushing yourself to the limit, let alone a multi-day trek in foreign terrain. As Giovanna explains, it isn’t always so easy to anticipate what lies ahead. ‘One thing you can’t really prepare for is the fact that you’re walking so far on consecutive days,' she tells us, adding, 'You’ll wake up and your body will feel absolutely battered and bruised, but you go again.'
And although she keeps her cardio up – laughing ‘I don’t want to be panting next to people as they’re telling me their stories’ – Giovanna insists that ‘the most important thing is to pack a sense of humour, because you have to be able to laugh at whatever situation arises and just go with the flow.’
From her first trek in 2017 to Oman, to tackling the Pembrokeshire Coast with her husband Tom’s Strictly partner turned close family friend Amy Dowden last year, Giovanna already has plenty of CoppaFeel! milestones under her belt.
When asked about pushing herself to the limit, she explains ‘For me, it’s more the emotional side of stuff. There’s something about walking, when you’re focusing on putting on foot in front of the other rather than eyeballing people, the words just tumble out and the heart opens up. Because of that, the conversations are deep and huge. You can’t really have that emotional outburst that you might be feeling when you’re listening to someone tell their story.’
‘I try on every trek to make sure that I get a little moment. I remember my first trek in Oman back in 2017… It was the final night and a few of us had gone for a dip in the sea. Just looking up at the stars and seeing the plankton that make the water glitter, that was my moment to take it all in – the whole trip and its purpose. Even if it’s just sitting on a rock and looking at the landscape, I try to take moments of calm and peace to help me process. It’s important to have that stillness.’
'As you walk and talk, you can't help but think about the other people in your life'
Whilst every mission is poignant, this trek brings another layer of emotion for Giovanna.
Earlier this year, Strictly professional Amy announced that she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32. A year ago the star was trekking across Pembrokeshire with Giovanna in support of CoppaFeel! Now, she’s opened up about how the trek ‘saved her life’ by encouraging her to check her own breasts.
‘This year more than ever, it all feels so present,’ shares Giovanna, ‘The founder of CoppaFeel! Kris is a good friend of mine, and she’s just had her FUNeral – her living funeral. Amy’s been very open about the fact that there are multiple tumours and two different types of cancer, and her journey isn’t an isolated one. As you walk and talk, you can’t help but think about the other people in your life and what they’re going through. It gives you that drive to make sure no one else is in that position and that, like Amy, they get that early diagnosis. It’s lifesaving, essentially.’
For Giovanna, the way a breast cancer diagnosis can turn your whole worlds upside down is a feeling she knows all too well, having lost an aunt and a close friend to the disease. She explains, ‘Both of them were older, so growing up I always thought breast cancer was something that happens to older women. It wasn’t until I met Kris that I realised that’s a lie. That’s misinformation that we see in movies and things, and we all just lap up.’
‘When I heard Kris’s story, when I found out about the signs and symptoms, and that 400 men a year get it in the UK alone, it just felt that people need to know about this. Seeing my friend at the end of her life and what the cancer had done to her, I can’t help but think of her.’
And it’s these exact moments that keep Giovanna coming back, year after year, and taking on another challenge in the name of CoppaFeel!
'You’re doing it for the people you’ve met and the incredible stories you’ve heard,’ she says, recalling one of her own team members from her trekking group based in Pembrokeshire. ‘There was an incredible woman called Jo who’d been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer a few years before, and she’s been given the all-clear three months before our trek. A month later, she started having seizures. The cancer had spread to her brain, and she sadly passed away. Now, my Pembrokeshire lot always say it’s for our number 22 – for Jo.’
‘I always say to the trekkers, you will save someone’s life by doing this trek. It could be that someone sees your post and acts on something today, next week, or even in 10 or 20 years – but they will have known that whatever they found has to be checked out because of the work that we do now.’
Indeed, CoppaFell have – will and keep on – saving lives.
From their community of volunteers, dubbed Boobettes, who are almost always armed with giant boob costumes and stickers, to monthly text message reminders and tags in bras, the charity and their life-saving message is never far away.
‘I don’t know whether it’s motherhood or what, but I feel like I find a piece of me every time I go on one of these treks,’ Giovanna explains. ‘I think that’s largely because of CoppaFeel! and the charity that they are. They bring a community together like no other, and it’s an honour to be able to head it up.’
And Gi’s final message is simple: to, quite literally, cop a feel. ‘There are so many people who are told, “Don’t worry about it, you’re too young,” but the important thing is that everyone should know their normal and advocate for their own health if anything changes,’ she insists. ‘Know your normal, know the signs and symptoms, and then go to the doctor.’
This September, Giovanna Fletcher will be completing the 'CoppaTrek! with Gi' in Mont Blanc, France, to raise vital funds and awareness for breast cancer charity, CoppaFeel!. To donate please visit https://coppatrek-mont-blanc.coppafeel.org/