It's PINKTOBER!
In case you've been living under a rock, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. That means you will be inundated with ads online and on tv for anything and everything pink. People will start those stupid chain messages on Facebook about a "no bra day" to support the cause. People will tell you to "save second base". You'll have the opportunity to buy pink shirts, socks, shoes, pens, jewelry, rubbermaid containers, hammers, etc. You name it, someone has jumped on the pink ribbon bandwagon for it.
Most of my breast cancer survivor friends have a hate/hate relationship with this month, and the color pink. It's true that most of the hype does NOT raise any money for breast cancer care or research. There are a ton of articles and web sites about how little profit from pink ribbon sales actually goes to the cause. Most of it is just that.... profit. Only a very small percentage, if any, of pink ribbon merchandise sales actually goes towards anything related to breast cancer. So basically it's just people and businesses capitalizing on breast cancer.
That's the negative. I don't blame my friends for feeling that way, and I don't agree with anyone wanting to make a profit on something that tried to kill me.
However..... I don't mind Pinktober. I don't mind pink ribbon items. I love pink!
Having breast cancer changed my life. While it doesn't define me, it has changed the way I look, the way I feel, and the way I view things. And the way I view this whole pink ribbon campaign is this: if you know me, or someone else, who has been affected by breast cancer, and you choose to wear a shirt with a pink ribbon on it, or buy pink trash bags, or put a pink ribbon magnet on your car, I don't think you are "giving in" to the hype. In my opinion, by doing any of those things, you are showing your support for me (or whoever) and the fact that I'm a survivor of this horrible disease.
While Hefty may donate little or no profit from the sale of pink trash bags, the fact that you bought them with ME in mind means that the whole gimmick worked. Your purchase of those trash bags will not provide a cure for cancer..... but it does show support. And one of the most important weapons in a cancer patient's arsenal is support.
(To be clear, I have no clue if Hefty sells pink trash bags.... that's just an example I made up because let's face it, you can buy everything from pens to scarves to boots with pink ribbons on them!)
For the month of October I am going to share one fact about breast cancer each day.... because while you may think you know everything there is to know about "saving the ta tas", there might be some that surprise you.
October 1st - The leading risk factor for breast cancer is simply being a woman. Though breast cancer does occur in men, the disease is 100 times more common in women than in men and women are at 200 times the risk of developing the disease compared to risk in men.
Being a woman is great. Sure, men get to pee standing up and can lift heavy things, but women are AMAZING! We give birth. We multitask. We laugh and we love and we comfort and we connect. Girls are sugar and spice and everything nice, remember?
But we are also a lot more likely to get breast cancer. A LOT!
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