Last weekend UNLOCKED Shoreditch hosted The Girls' Bathroom, a free community pop-up event created by Touchy Feely in partnership with NHS North East London Cancer Alliance. The event brought together over 500 sign-ups for an afternoon centred on breast health awareness, community connection and cultural celebration, held during Ethnic Minority Cancer Awareness Month.
The Girls' Bathroom is exactly the kind of event UNLOCKED Shoreditch was built for. Not every activation is a brand campaign or a product launch. Some of the most important things a venue can do is open its doors to events that bring communities together around conversations that genuinely matter.
What Is Touchy Feely
Touchy Feely is the UK's leading creative and cultural cancer organisation, founded by Nellie Gbadebo, a breast cancer survivor and creative strategist who was diagnosed at 26 while raising three children under the age of three. Touchy Feely exists to make conversations around cancer feel less clinical, less intimidating and more culturally real, particularly for communities that face barriers to accessing health information and support.
The Girls' Bathroom is Touchy Feely's flagship community experience, designed to bring breast health awareness directly into the community in a format that feels human, approachable and free from the intimidation that often surrounds healthcare messaging. This edition, in partnership with NHS North East London Cancer Alliance, brought that mission to Shoreditch for the first time.
The Day
The event ran from 12pm to 4pm on Saturday 19 July at UNLOCKED Shoreditch. With over 500 sign-ups, the turnout reflected the appetite for this kind of community-led experience in East London and the trust that Touchy Feely has built with its audience.
Attendees were met with an atmosphere that felt approachable, supportive and empowering throughout. The space was designed to feel welcoming rather than clinical, with the kind of energy that made conversations around body awareness and early detection feel natural rather than heavy.
A photo booth gave guests a moment to celebrate being in the room together, while a memory wall created a space for personal reflection and community connection. Dr Dot (@askdrdot_) was present on the day and received significant praise from attendees for her warmth, expertise and ability to make every conversation feel personal and safe.
Live music added to the atmosphere, with an Amapiano summer session running alongside the community programming and giving the afternoon a cultural energy that felt true to Touchy Feely's approach of meeting communities where they are.
Why This Event Matters
Research consistently shows that women from ethnic minority communities face later cancer diagnosis, poorer health outcomes and greater barriers to accessing culturally relevant health information. The Girls' Bathroom was designed specifically to help close that gap, not through clinical messaging but through community, culture and human connection.
Cyret White, Senior Project Manager at NHS North East London Cancer Alliance, noted that the event aimed to bridge these conversations directly into the community in a way that feels human, relatable and free from clinical intimidation.
Nellie Gbadebo added that the partnership with NHS North East London Cancer Alliance reflects what is possible when healthcare meets culture, and a shared commitment to making breast health information more accessible and community-led for underserved communities.
The response on the day and across social media in the days following confirmed that this format works. Attendees shared their experiences openly, and the content captured at the event has continued to spread the event's message well beyond the 500 people who were in the room.
UNLOCKED Shoreditch as a Community Space
UNLOCKED Shoreditch is known primarily as a venue for brand activations, product launches and music events. But the venue has always been as much about the community it sits within as the commercial events it hosts.
Hosting The Girls' Bathroom is a reflection of that. Shoreditch is one of the most diverse and culturally rich parts of London, and the communities that live and work here deserve access to events like this in spaces they feel comfortable in. Being the venue for The Girls' Bathroom is something we are genuinely proud of.