Two artists and former cancer patients have teamed up with an east London sex shop to launch an online store designed by and for people living with cancer.
Brian Lobel and Joon-Lynn Goh have worked with Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium in Hoxton — as well as a group of patient advocates, specialist doctors and nurses, psychosexual therapists and sex toy experts — to create the Sex with Cancer store.
It features sex toys and products specially designed for those living with and beyond cancer. Among items in the shop are a cordless wand massager for people living with chronic pain and fatigue; a cherry love ball, which is great for kegel pelvic floor exercise; and a Sex with Cancer lube, which doubles up as a skin conditioner.
Elsewhere on the site, there's a fun 30-minute course, where you can earn your Certificate in Sex and Cancer Conversation Competency; and a short documentary film, Unexpired Pleasures, which asks: what is our relationship with sex and pleasure as we confront cancer?
Say Goh and Lobel: "People with cancer are navigating lots of emotions, traumas and priorities, all of which might make sex less desirable or feasible.
"Sex with Cancer has been created in response to the difficulties many people encounter when opening up dialogue about these issues with their medical teams. Many people feel uncomfortable talking about sex, while many medical professionals lack the confidence and training to talk about sexual pleasure, intimacy and relationships."
