By: Cheryl Lynn Vanase
Posted In: News
Photo credit: courtesy of The National Breast Cancer, Inc.
Look for all of the pink ribbons this month for Breast Cancer Awarness Month!
I touched it and it was like a bolt of lightning went through me. I just knew,” explained a close work associate of Editor-in-Chief of SELF magazine, Lucy S. Danziger. “If your breasts usually feel like a bag of grapes, this felt like a pebble. It was that hard.” Not everyone knows someone who has been touched by breast cancer, thank goodness.
Education and awareness is far more important than one may realize. Based on this simple fact, according to the 15th Annual Breast Cancer Handbook provided by the informed source SELF magazine, it is 98 percent possible to survive breast cancer if you find it in the earliest stages. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month! The year 2005 marks 20 years that NBCAM has educated women about early detection, diagnosis and treatment. On the official website, nbcam.org, the first thing that pops out at you is this promising mission statement, “Over two decades of building breast cancer awareness and providing information and hope for future innovations in breast cancer treatment.” Even more promising is that SELF magazine says that $605 million will be spent on breast cancer research this year, at the National Cancer Institute, a nearly $40 million increase from last year. So, we have the real-life up-close and personal experience of what it felt like for one woman to detect her breast cancer, but what are the national statistics on so- called grapes turned to pebbles? For starters, SELF’s Breast Cancer Handbook confirms the grape and pebble analogy in the step-by-step directions on how to conduct a self exam. This analogy may seem a bit weird at first, but it is among the best advice your breasts will ever get, because frankly, a small rock in a bag of grapes that is really your own breast is unusual enough to notice. Knowing this simple but number one piece of information, you are on the road to living a healthy life. “Help for today, hope for tomorrow” stands out above the delicate seeming baby-pink colored ribbon on the ever-so pink National Breast Cancer Foundation webpage. As we all know, the pink ribbon has become infamously popular throughout the nation as a symbol of support for women with breast cancer. The site, nationalbreastcancer.org, has provided the following statistics. This year in America, more than 211,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,300 will die. One woman in seven either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In addition, 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 400 will die this year. If detected early, the five-year survival rate exceeds 95 percent. Mammograms are among the best early detection methods, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had a mammogram. What you can do; give the gift of hope to those in need, educate yourself and others and remember that early detection is No.1 in prevention. Help because, although not everyone has known someone affected by breast cancer, everyone has a mother, sister, aunt, daughter, cousin, girlfriend, grandmother or influential woman in their life. Don’t miss this! The American Cancer Society and Rhode Island community partners will present Color My World, a fashion show to promote breast cancer awareness and cultural diversity on Saturday, October 29 at 3 p.m. at the St. Martin dePorres Center, located on 160 Cranston St., in Providence.
