October is here again, which can mean only one thing. It is time for me to climb up on my soap box and preach the virtues of thinking pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The greatest tragedy of breast cancer is how many avoidable deaths occur each year. When detected early, it really can be very survivable these days. But too many women are either lacking the knowledge and information required to perform basic self-checks or bury their heads in the sand and assume they will not be one of those affects.
Surveys have show that 33% of women aren’t regularly checking themselves and a shocking 20% of women don’t even know how to check their breasts. If you are one of those women, I beg you, please take the time to learn more about how to self-check at someone like http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types/self_exam/bse_steps. And all women could do with familiarising ourselves with some of the less well known symptoms include a nipple becoming inverted or a change in texture of the skin - http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms.
So, as you can hopefully see by now, dressing in pink or dying your hair pink to show your support and solidarity for sufferers of this terrible disease is an important contribution. But it is only a first step. There is so much more that you can do. Both for yourself and for others.
First and foremost, your participation needs to be a stimulus to those women who are neglecting their own wellbeing (and a reminder to the rest of us not to get complacent) to be proactive in protecting their health and being aware of what is going on with our bodies. It needs to be accompanied with the information that can educate and change attitudes. There needs to be some form of engagement. Please share the links above with anyone who you think might benefit from them.
And, if you feel that you want to make a financial contribution towards cancer research and care, then by all means do so. There are plenty of great organisations out there that are worth of your donation. My chosen charity is Breast Cancer Now who organise the annual Wear It Pink day but that is by no means the only one out there.
Please, do your part in keeping this conversation alive, not just for October, but for all 12 months of the year. Ignorance can no longer be used an excuse for so many deaths.
I appreciate that there is a fair amount of text there to wade through and, if you have taken the time to do so, you have my thanks and gratitude. Please do not be passive with this information though. Share it with as many as you can.
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