Cancer is probably the only thing that threatens our breasts more than gravity. The American Cancer Society estimates that a woman's chance of getting invasive breast cancer at some point in her life is a little less than 1 in 8. 1 in 8. Pretty stunning odds.
I've seen how those odds play out. My sister, my mother and my practically-sister-in-law are all breast cancer survivors. My aunt was not so lucky.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Cancer research has found ways to detect breast cancer earlier and found more focused and targeted way to treat it. More and more women survive diagnoses that were once death sentences. There are tons of places to donate money to cancer research. If you have a little extra jingle in your jeans, you might want to consider it.
But I'm not writing this to ask you to donate money. I'm writing this to ask you to take a few minutes to take care of yourself. Make sure you check yourself monthly. Nearly 70% of breast cancers are detected through self-exam. Don't put off that year mammogram if it's indicated either. I just scheduled a mother/daughter outing to the imaging center.
This month, make the call. Feel yourself up in the shower. Do your part to keep your parts healthy. Yay, breasts!
6 comments:
YAY Breasts!! Adam and I were watching the Jets Vivkings football game last night (my yen for Brett Favre is convenient in times like these) but the NFL has adopted the Breast Cance Awareness Cause in a HUGE way - there was pink splashed all over that field and I have to say - it was hugely HUGELY moving (or perhaps I'm easy that way). And I hope effective. Go. Go now. Feel yourself up in the shower.
I know. I loved all the pink out there. There's something about seeing a 300 lb. linebacker with a pink chin strap that just makes me smile.
I've got both survivors and the less lucky in my family, too. In fact, a cousin my age fighting right now.
It's a great cause and all the pink does help awareness.
I'm also a fan of the pink. And we took part in the "jean" event. You pay $5.00 and you get to wear jeans to work.
Small things like that but they really add up.
great message. I feel bad because this year my family did not take part in the run for the cure.
Maybe next year, to celebrate that our family was touched, but not devasted by breast cancer
Sinead, this past year we had a group of family members that did the Relay for Life. It was a blast and we managed to raise a fair amount of money. My sister and niece and I had done the Susan G. Komen run one year, but the Relay was so much better.
That said, I don't think we could do it more than every three to four years. The logistics were nightmarish. We did get a special prize for the team that came the longest distance. My cousin Sondra flew in from Maine for it. The really funny part about that was that she wasn't up at the track when they gave out the award and I ended up going up to accept it on her behalf. Afterward, people kept coming up and hugging me and thanking me for coming such a long way. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I personally had only come about a mile and a half from the west side of Davis. I'm terrified I'm going to run into one of them at the grocery store and they're going to accuse me of being a fraud.
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