Kuppd: the Manchester tech start-up which wants to support women affected by breast cancer

A Manchester start-up is using the latest technology to support women who have had breast cancer.

Kuppd is creating a range of post-surgery prosthetics such as breast forms which will help them find clothes that fit them and which make them feel good at the same time.

The firm is the brainchild of lingerie designer Sarah Cordery who was speaking to a close friend who had been through breast cancer about her experiences of the disease and its aftermath.

Kuppd is running a community scanning event in Manchester for breast cancer survivors and is urging anyone who has fought the disease to come along.

What is Kuppd and where did the idea come from?

Kuppd was created by Sarah Cordery, a lingerie designer who has worked for some of the biggest names in the industry such as Ann Summers and also runs fashion design agency Sarah Denise Studio and is based between Didsbury and Stockport.

She formally created Kuppd as a company about six months ago but said she had been working on the idea since just before lockdown in March 2020.

She said: “I was at a business accelerator with a really good friend of mine and she had been through breast cancer.

“I’ve always wanted to think of ways to use my skills to help people, and lingerie design is all about making people feel great and sexy.

“We were having a conversation and she was saying she was having issues finding anything that fit. Surgeons and doctors don’t tend to take aesthetics into consideration, and once the cancer is out you are left to deal with the aftermath.

“Despite beating the disease, I was heartbroken to hear of the lasting damage it had done to my friend’s sense of self-esteem and relationships with others.

“I felt there was a massive market being under-served here.”

Sarah says women who have had breast cancer can struggle to find a breast form, which is a silicon or fabric prosthesis that replaces part or all of the breast that has been removed during surgery, that they are completely comfortable with and love wearing.

Breast forms are often worn temporarily or permanently by women who have had either masectomies or lumpectomies (where a portion of breast cancer tissue is removed).

Kuppd aims to produce customisable, fashionable breast forms which use 3D scanning to capture each customer’s body shape and also minimise the environmental impact.

And with around one in seven women in the UK born after 1960 likely to develop breast cancer at some point during her lifetime, Sarah believes there are many people who could benefit from a way of making their life post-surgery a bit easier to navigate.

What is Kuppd doing that requires public help?

Kuppd has teamed up with Manchester Fashion Institute and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) to put on community scanning events for breast cancer survivors.

Participants are being asked to travel into the city centre to be given a 3D body scan at the university’s Righton Building for the project and they will receive a £50 gift voucher and travel reimbursement for taking part.

The scanning days are running on Thursday 8 September from 9.30am to 4.30pm and Friday 9 September from 12pm to 4.30pm. More information is available here.

Kuppd and Manchester Fashion Institute are also running an online questionnaire to discover more about women’s needs and wants after breast surgery, and this can be found here.