As I made my way around the University of New South Wales last Monday night I noticed that things were a little pinker than usual.
I jumped on their website and found that they’re “tickled pink for breast cancer” as part of the Global Illumination project (the site has an auto-play video — you might want to turn the volume down).
Some people feel fairly cynical about Breast Cancer Awareness month, and possibly rightly so with all the hundreds of causes around us and all the times we’re asked to donate money. What on earth does “Breast Cancer Awareness” mean anyway? Who hasn’t heard of breast cancer? A lot of money is raised for the more obvious things — research into treatments for breast cancer — during this month, but awareness in itself is an important thing.
I recently wrote this in response to a very good post questioning pink,
I’m sure almost everyone has heard of it and know that it exists, but how many women don’t know how to check their breasts properly? How many women get proper women’s health check-ups from their doctor? How many people don’t know that the risk of getting breast cancer increases with increased alcohol consumption and with being overweight?
It’s not supposed to be about going around saying “Hey, 1 in 8 women get breast cancer!” It’s about saying, “Look, 1 in 8 women are likely to get breast cancer. Here’s what you can do to try to prevent it, or have it detected early to make your chances of survival much higher.”
Check out the Pink for October website for more articles and sites that are going pink.
I think the more awareness the better! It’s really cool to see you doing your bit to raise awareness as well.
Next month is Movember, are you going to get involved..hhehe
Thanks Matt 🙂
I’m not sure how I would get involved, but I’ll try to come up with something 🙂 I care about men’s health… wouldn’t want my man to be all unhealthy!
Thank you for your comment. I loved it. I think you are absolutely right about the way that Pink for October should work. People should be more concerned with the knowledge, and not just the commercial flashing of ribbons and other merchandise without knowing the facts. Thank you. 🙂
You’re welcome Caitlin.
It’s true about the knowledge, but applying that knowledge is the important bit, which I’m still finding difficult. There are some risk factors that I know I’m susceptible to, but it takes a bit of time and effort to fix that stuff up. This month’s campaign has been a pretty good motivator though.
Laura Bush (Current…soon to be ex-First Lady) lit the White House Pink the other day for breast cancer awareness…so…I suppose it was The Pink House…