Here we are, another year, another Pinktober.
It has taken 14 years as a survivor for me to realize the problem is not the fact that it’s October and it’s about breast cancer awareness, it’s still about all the pink crap that manufacturers shove at us saying it’ll do good. Yeah maybe for their profit margins, but not much else.
Year after year, I check into the minuscule proportions of profit that manufacturers who try to sell you pink crap during Pinktober actually donate.
Year after year, I can’t believe people haven’t seen through the various marketing schemes.
Breast cancer is neither pink or fluffy. I’m sure the pink color as identifier is because more often than not, it’s women who get breast cancer, however men also get breast cancer.
If you want to support breast cancer awareness, it’s not being done with a cheap pink bracelet. It’s being done with the brave women, many of whom you never know existed, who are just trying to live their best lives during an after breast cancer. It’s being done by the dedicated medical community and smaller nonprofits that want to educate and help people.
If you wish to support a nonprofit look for the local ones or the smaller ones in your community that actually help. One I think often of in particular, which is wonderful in the Philadelphia area is Unite for Her. I was introduced to them years ago by a woman who believes in what they do. They offer programming they get women together in fellowship. They offer practical information they offer support. I’m not necessarily talking about financial support. I’m talking about that friendly ear or programs that help.
https://www.facebook.com/unite4her
This nonprofit was founded right in Chester County, Pennsylvania. they have wonderful programs and zoom calls that you can participate in and more.
And of course, another nonprofit also local to the greater Philadelphia region that I will always hold dear is breastcancer.org – this was founded by my radiation oncologist, Dr. Marisa Weiss.
The need for positive education on the topic of breast cancer or cancer at all never wanes. I realized that the other day when I was speaking with someone who has a newly diagnosed family member. It wasn’t that they were uneducated on the topic, it was about how people were behaving around them.
It’s funny it really annoyed the crap out of me to hear this, just like when I was newly diagnosed and there were people that had me 1 foot in the grave 14 years ago or we’re trying to sell me iodine cures, or other quack based treatment for breast cancer.
You get a breast cancer diagnosis and people are already planning your funeral and you really want look at them and try not to scream “get the F out of here !” (And in my opinion it’s quite all right to do that. It’s not their feelings that matter during this time it’s the feelings of the breast cancer patient.)
It’s that ignorance out there that makes me say every breast cancer awareness month hey it’s not pink. It’s not fluffy. It’s not about pink plastic crap, or some stupid bracelet that has the majority of profits going into the coffers of the manufacturer.
I think it is just as important for people without breast cancer to be educated on what it’s like to have it. I think it’s important for people to be educated on what actually helps.
And I think it’s important for the public in general to be educated about the pink plastic crap and dumb stuff that manufacturers put out during the month of October to say they support breast cancer awareness.
Today, 14 years later, because I’m a blogger that a lot of people don’t like even though they don’t actually know me I just have opinions different from theirs, I will sometimes get comments sent in that say things like “It’s a shame you didn’t die from breast cancer all those years ago.” To them I say, I hope you never actually get the disease or know someone you love who is affected by it.
Ignorance knows no bounds in this country and you know you almost sadly expect that from people today. It’s really terrible that that’s become the norm, but it doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable.
We live in a country that is such a hot mess right now, especially when it comes to healthcare and issues of women’s health in particular. Please don’t celebrate Pinktober with a piece of pink plastic crap. Get yourself educated on the topic and if you have a couple extra coins in your pocket, give to a nonprofit that you know will actually help breast cancer, patients and survivors. We donate to research that will keep cancer treatment going.
And if you have never experienced having breast cancer, don’t say to a breast cancer survivor or patient that you know how they feel. Trust me when I tell you that you do not. First of all, we feel so many things at any given time, and getting one of these diagnoses is a very personal thing so you can’t really get how that person feels because you’re not them.
I sign off stating once again I am one of the lucky ones. Please get yourself, educated on the topic, get mammograms, and genetic testing if you have cancer in your family.
