She was the woman who left doctors scratching their heads - and saved more lives than any one medic ever could.
Campaigner Kristen Hallenga was just 23 when, in 2009, she was diagnosed with stage four secondary breast cancer. Shell-shocked and confused, having spent a year being ignored by GPs, she was then given just 24 months to live. But Kris was never one to do things to other people’s timetables.
Yesterday, it was announced the fearless awareness campaigner and founder of charity CoppaFeel! had passed away aged 38 - some 15 years and a legacy of hard work later. And as the great and the good from Dawn French to Simon Cowell gave their tributes, it was clear she might have spent most of her adult life living on borrowed time, but she never wasted a minute of it.
The Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award winner helped save the lives of millions by launching CoppaFeel! - the only UK charity dedicated to raising breast cancer awareness for young people. She raised her army of loyal “Boobettes”, successfully campaigned for cancer education on the school curriculum and taught a whole generation to check their breasts - and avoid her fate.
Kris Hallenga has died of cancer aged 38 after being diagnosed 15 years ago (INSTAGRAM)By projecting campaign images on the Houses of Parliament, putting the first bare nipple on a billboard and running pop-up clinics from a hot pink campervan to launching her own Festifeel festival, she did the near impossible - and made her work fun.
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Simon Cowell, who had been a long-time supporter since meeting her at the Pride of Britain Awards, told the Mirror: “Kris’s love and passion for life has inspired, saved and will continue to help countless people. Her light and legacy will live forever. My love and prayers go out especially to her twin sister, and all her family and friends.”
Close friend Ferne Cotton designed a tattoo to cover one of Kris’s surgery scars, and has been close friends with her for 14 years. “I’ve spent today looking through so many photos of the brilliant, silly, magical and special times we spent together,” said Ferne. “When you were with her almost anything was possible. She rarely took no for an answer in the best way possible; getting the best musicians out there to play at our charity festival for CoppaFeel! or convincing others to run marathons with giant boobs strapped to them!”
Ferne added: “She lived fully, more than I’ve ever seen anyone live. Her face was pure sunshine not only because she was as beautiful as an angel but also because she was kind and caring and vibrant. This evening I will be lighting a candle for my dear mate who not only touched my life but saved many others.”
Dawn French resurrected Vicar of Dibley’s Geraldine Grainger to conduct Kris’s “living FUN-eral” at Truro Cathedral last year. She added: “Such a bright light, a true beauty inside and out. I will always love her.” Some 140 guests were invited to celebrate her life - while Kris could still join them. Among them was mummy blogger and author Giovanna Fletcher.
Kris Hallenga and Fearne Cotton launching Festifeel in 2014 - the pair became good friends (Getty Images)“‘I have loved my life’ are words that Kris said at her FUNeral last year,” said the author. “They have looped in my head ever since. “She hasn’t lost a battle, she wasn’t in a fight, and she wouldn’t want you to see her death as tragic. She died with a heart full of love. She loved her life.
“The work Kris did with CoppaFeel! has affected so many lives. So many people are here today because of the life saving message that she has put out there.” Wanting to hear her own eulogy was typical Kris.
“Kris was the biggest promoter of being ‘alive to do those things’,” read the statement from CoppaFeel! announcing the news of her death from complications of her illness. “She approached life in a wildly creative, fun and fearless way, and showed us that it is possible to live life to the full with cancer.”
The charity, co-founded by Kris and her twin Maren in 2009, referred to the campaigner and former Daily Mirror columnist as: “Our founder, boob chief, colleague, friend and queen of glittering turds” - a reference to her 2021 best-selling book and her well-known philosophy to make the best of a bad situation.
Krist Hallenga with Spice Girls Mel Brown and Emma Bunton at the Pride of Britain Awards in 2009 (Adam Sorenson)
Kris Hallenga with Dawn French, who called the campaigner 'such a bright light' (DawnFrench/Instagram)It continued: “Kris has reached millions of people with her message of health advocacy and empowerment, won the Women of the Year Outstanding Young Campaigner award, received an Honorary Doctorate in Public Administration from Nottingham Trent University and wrote a Times Best Selling book: Glittering a Turd.”
It added: “For 15 years, Kris had been living with secondary breast cancer. She hasn’t lost a battle, she wasn’t in a fight and she certainly wouldn’t want you to see her death as tragic. She was simply living.” This afternoon, Kris’s normally vibrant and joke-packed Instagram was replaced with a collage of video clips of the fun-loving blonde with a streak of blue-dyed hair and no inhibitions. Next to it was one of her most inspiring - albeit frank - quotes: “Even the most unpolishable turds are glitterable.”
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Among the millions who watched her podcasts and followed her social media, were dozens of other big names, most with their own connection to breast cancer in some way - and all admirers of her campaigning.
Mirror columnist Linda Nolan, who has secondary breast cancer, last night said: “We need to remember to live every moment because none of us know when it’ll be our last. She always made the most of the time she had and was such an inspirational and tireless campaigner.”
Carol Vorderman, host of the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards, was always touched by Kris’s work. She said: “This is so incredibly sad. Kris was such an incredibly bright star in the firmament. So many will thank you for all the help you’ve given them over your far-too-short life. The world was a better place because you were in it.”
Kris Hallenga with Ben Shepherd and her twin sister Maren Hallenga at the Pride of Britain Awards (Daily Mirror)Dancing On Ice star and presenter Adele Roberts, who has just finished her own treatment, added: “What an amazing incredible woman. What a wonderful legacy she has created. Her formidable and unstoppable spirit will live forever.”
And Loose Women’s Nadia Sawahla, whose best friend is fighting cancer, said: “A true force of nature .. you saved so many lives. Love to those who love you. Their loss is huge. A life SO well lived.” Of course, for Kris’s family it’s been a day they’ve long dreaded.
Kris and identical twin Maren were born in Germany to their English mum and German dad in 1985. Their parents split when they were 10, and they moved to England with their mum Jane and older sister Maike, then 12.
The four of them were close and it was on a girls’ trip to Barcelona when she was 22, that Kris first told them about a hard lump in her left breast. Kris went to the GP three times over the next year - but doctors were unperturbed, despite her gran having had breast cancer aged 30. In February 2009 she finally got a diagnosis. But then it was stage four and terminal.
“What could I possibly say? I felt the breath had been sucked out of me. I felt like I was there physically but somehow outside of my body. Like a surveillance camera hanging in the corner of the room, capturing a life being shattered,” Kris wrote of that moment. “The doctors seemed as shocked as I was about it, which is confusing, because they’re the experts and know that breast cancer can happen at any age.”
Kris Hallenga became a leading campaigner who helped raise awareness of cancer symptoms (The Daily Mirror)But Kris soon decided her life would not be broken and instead vowed to educate other young people to regularly check their breasts. Alongside chemo, and with the help of twin Maren, she launched Coppafeel!, starting with a blog and festival pop-ups to educate people on checking techniques.
Eight months later she was presented with a special recognition award at the Daily Mirror’s 2009 Pride of Britain Awards, saying at the time: “I’m staring at the prospect of a hairless, boob-less life. It is my highest hope that by sharing my story, other young women will learn a potentially lifesaving lesson.”
The day after, Kris visited 10 Downing Street with other winners. She told Sarah Brown, the wife of then PM Gordon Brown, she was waiting to hear if CoppaFeel had won charity status. A month later, it did.
Sarah said: “So very sorry to hear that Kris Hallenga has passed away - Her legacy is both the joy and full-on glitter of her life amidst the scary stuff of cancer.” Two years after her diagnosis, Kris had defied the odds and would go on to get the all clear of the terminal diagnosis in 2014, although would always have to live with the secondary breast cancer.
“Doctors keep telling me they can’t pigeonhole me. They have always been scratching their heads about me,” she said at the time. The charity grew, with student ambassadors, its so-called Boobette fans, the Boob Bot app, ‘Belinda’, the pink campervan which toured festivals and self check-out tools. In 2017, they even had the honour of showing the first bare nipple on TV with an advert about how to check your boobs was first aired.
By 2019, CoppaFeel was raising £2million a year and had 15 staff. But by then the secondary breast cancer had spread to Kris’s liver, brain and bones. She moved to Cornwall, continued writing columns for various publications, launched her How to Glitter a Turd podcast and penned her book during lockdown. Her social media posts to her 120,000 plus followers were often irreverent and fun while reminding people to check their breasts.
She marked the 15th anniversary of her diagnosis, nine weeks ago, with what would turn out to be her last Instagram post: “This time last week I was shuffling ever so gracefully off the village hall dance floor after celebrating 15 years of not being dead……… WILD.”
It’s not as wild as what Kris once told The Mirror. For in 2011, Kris admitted something few ever would. “People may think it’s weird, but I wouldn’t change or take it back,” she said of her cancer. “If someone said they could reverse it, take it away and I could lead a completely different life, I wouldn’t.
“I love what I do and get to make a difference every day. How many people can say that?” Always with the glitter....and that is why she shone.
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