How Touchy-Feely is supporting Black and Brown women living with cancer

"I asked the radiographer, 'What can I expect? What's it going to look like on my skin?' And she said, 'You'll just go pink, like you've been sunburned.' That was an internal eye roll, because I thought, 'Are you not seeing me? I'm a Black woman, I don't go pink, and I don't sunburn easily.' 

"I started to think that surely I can't be the only one who's gone through that." 

Experiences like this led Nellie to start Touchy-Feely, a non-profit organisation aiming to support Black and Brown women living with cancer. 

Nellie originally intended for Touchy-Feely to be a podcast which would platform experiences of cancer survivors, but for World Cancer Day 2025, Nellie filmed the stories of a handful of women, and shared them online, which was successful. 

"It did really well because people felt seen and heard, and then they started to engage with our page," she said. "People wanted a sense of belonging. They wanted us to do events and create opportunities for people to meet." 

This led to Touchy-Feely's first event, Re:Body, where practical tools to manage diagnosis such as culturally informed breast checks were combined with wellness exercises such as breathwork. 

The event was a success and led to Touchy-Feely deciding to become a non-profit, and they have since run several community events and campaigns.

Now, Touchy-Feely has produced a documentary, Radio Silence, which explores the experiences of Black and Brown women, and their loved ones, receiving cancer treatment. It explores areas in which better cultural competence could support patients at the most crucial times of their experience, such as reducing language barriers, making people feel heard, and providing inclusive resources. 

The documentary was made possible through a Macmillan Support Grant, which helps fund community-led projects that support people living with cancer.  

"I thought 'how can we channel this story into something that people would be able to resonate with and understand, but also learn from?'," says Nellie. "We don't produce things just to produce things: we do this so people can learn, and so we can move forward."

The documentary recently had an exclusive screening in London to mark Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month, but Nellie and Touchy-Feely have ambitions to bring the documentary to more communities in the future, so it can continue to drive conversations about equity in cancer care. 

Community organisations are an essential part of the cancer space, creating space for people to bring themselves to the conversation, and able to advocate for key issues facing a community or group.  

Nellie credits a friend, Tiwa, for helping her understand how to run a non-profit organisation, and acknowledges that her own background as a creative, beauty influencer and marketer helped her understand how she could build an organisation looking for creative ways to amplify the voices of the underserved and drive global change. 

"In my case, beauty carried me through cancer. It made sense for me to merge the two. I have relationships with beauty brands, and I bring them into Touchy Feely's mission. 

"If others want to start their own community organisation, my advice is to leverage the network you have. Look at your contacts and see where there's synergy. Start with what you have and build from there." 

This information has been written by a Macmillan employee and revised and edited by the Digital Content Team.

Learn more about how we produce our cancer information.