Each year, October is pinkified as every one runs helter skelter to show their support for Breast Cancer Awareness – the one campaign October is now synonymous with. I must confess I get a little jaded. I’m sorry! I realise I should be talking about it, because it is a pretty perfect fit for my blog. But you see, after 4 years of thinking pink in October, I tend to think “Whats the point of talking about it one time in a year when BSE is really a monthly affair?” I wore my pink ribbon proudly the first few years, and then when things got a little too commercialized I just left off.
But it was as I thought that, that I realised that October isn’t just about breast cancer – it is for Breast Cancer Awareness. We can be blinded by the pink around us, and the hustlers urging us to buy something pink to support their BCA cause, but what it ultimately is about is “awareness”. I know of a family friend who’s lost 2 sisters to breast cancer. I don’t know if they knew it might have been detected earlier and their lives saved or if they even knew it was possible.
Let us (and me) leave aside our cynicism and remember that what this campaign is about is to raise the awareness of breast cancer, and to remind us that breast cancer can be cured with early detection. Breast cancer is not a death sentence. But early detection is key.