Raising Awareness: Breast Cancer is REAL

As I was coming out of the pharmacy at my HMO today, I was reminded by a big banner that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Today at Starbucks, the woman who handed me my frappacino was wearing the breast cancer pink ribbon. And at Safeway this weeked, after totaling up my bill, the clerk behind the counter asked if I wanted to make a donation to a breast cancer charity. After each donation, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker, and the donor’s name was boomed thoughout the store.

It all reminded me of how far we have come in breast cancer awareness. Just 20 years ago, when my mother was first diagnosed with breast cancer, such public awareness and publicity about breast cancer was unusual. We’ve come a long way, baby.

But there’s still more battles to fight. Just read Kathleen Kingsbury’s story in Time this week –a story about the spread of breast cancer throughout the world — and you’ll understand why.

Although breast cancer is spreading throughout the underdeveloped world, awareness as well as access to detection and treatment hasn’t kept pace. Myths about breast cancer also still abound in the Third World, where women with breast cancer may be shunned or discriminated against by their neighbors.

Discrimination against women with breast cancer stems from one thing–FEAR–fear that breast cancer is contagious, and that once diagnosed, one will die from breast cancer. Says Liu Lichun in the Time article: “I’d never heard of anyone in China with cancer who didn’t die.”

This is a sad comment — but also sobering is the Time statistic that by 2020, 70% of all breast cancer cases will be diagnosed in developing countries. That’s why it’s vital for people in the U.S. to be aware of the breast cancer burden not only in the U.S., but in other countries as well.

All well and good, you may say, but what can I personally do about the breast cancer situation in Kenya or China? Well there are things one can do to help. The first is to contribute to breast cancer advocacy groups like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest breast cancer organization, which has a worldwide reach and recently sponsored an international conference of doctors, advocates and survivors to share information, stories and support. Other groups that give money to underserved populations in foreign countries include the Avon Foundation, which sponsors marathons for breast cancer around the U.S.

It really isn’t difficult to contribute to a breast cancer charity, or to make a more time-intensive effort –to actually walk in a marathon that will raise money for the breast cancer fight around the world. I walked in the Avon Breast Cancer Marathon in NY last year, and it was an incredible experience. I walked the length of Manhattan during the marathon, along with breast cancer survivors and those who’ve lost relatives and friends to breast cancer as I have. Wearing a placard that read “for my mother, Anne and for my Aunt Mary” –both of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer –I felt that I had really accomplished something by trudging along New York’s city streets during the marathon, despite a shoulder injury and sore feet afterward.

I’ll never forget the sight of hundreds of balloons lifting over the South Sea Seaport in lower Manhattan, as those who had walked in the marathon cheered and celebrated the millions of dollars raised that weekend.

Of course, keeping breast cancer before the eye of the public doesn’t have to mean walking in a marathon. It can be incredibly simple. Giving a donation at your local Safeway or Starbucks is one way. Or just getting up in the morning, and pinning a pink ribbon to your lapel is a sign to the world –breast cancer SHOULD be taken seriously.

To read Kathleen Kingsbury’s story in Time, visit: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1666089_1666563_1668477,00.html

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Web site: http://www.komen.org/

Published in: on October 11, 2007 at 2:30 am Comments (0)