“It’s been a great opportunity to reflect and be more responsible.”
The Happy Pear brothers have said they’ll be sticking to their own areas of expertise following the controversy they faced back in April.
Stephen and David Flynn came under fire for a video shared to their Instagram page, where they offered tips on how to reduce the risk of breast cancer.
In the video, they said that breast cancer rates in high income countries like Ireland and UK are much higher than some others and recommended a plant-based diet with foods like soy and mushrooms to help in the prevention of the disease.
Many people were left outraged, saying they felt it shamed cancer patients and implied individuals are to blame for their own illness. Other claimed the information was “factually incorrect”.
The duo later issued an apology and deleted the video.
Now, speaking on the Ray D’Arcy show, the brothers said they made a “mistake” and will stay in their “lane” in the future when it comes to discussing things online.
View this post on Instagram
“People thought it was us giving advice on breast cancer. There was a huge controversy around it, and we understand why now, and I guess our expertise is eat more fruit and veg and I guess we’ve seen it in countless cases within ourselves.
“We’re not doctors, we’re not medical experts, but we do work with a lot of doctors… we understand the controversy and we apologise if we upset anyone, our intention was quite the opposite, it was to try and shine a light on female’s health and we apologise if we came across in any way insincere.”
They explained that they had worked on a podcast with senior consultant gynaecologist Dr Nitu Bajekal where they talked about women’s health and breast cancer. They decided to make the short video based on what they had spoken about.
“I think it was also the fact that we were saying it as opposed to her saying it, so we’re not doctors, we’re not dieticians.
“I guess we learned that we kind of stepped outside our lane and totally get it and it’s like how stupid of us, sincerest apologies and we know that vegetables is our area of expertise.
“We were ignorant, my intention was to inspire people to eat more veg and I realise we stepped out of line, we made a mistake.
“It’s been a hard challenging time, but on the other side, it’s been a great opportunity to reflect and be more responsible and also stick in our lane, stick with our own expertise it’s a lot easier.”
