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Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2009

I came across this article from WebMD about the personal stories of breast cancer survivors.  I find them tremendously encouraging and not only relevant to the specific subject of breast cancer, but also about handling adversity in general.  Some of the key points I noticed in these women's stories:
  • They took action
  • They were hopeful
  • They had support
  • They dealt with what they were facing in different ways.  In the words of one "you don't need to be a hero" while another decided to do just that and continued to go to the gym. 
They are great examples of women who have met the challenge of breast cancer and made it through.  If they can do it, so can you.  No matter what your personal challenge is.  Take a read of the WebMD article
Me and the girls.

Breast cancer is a subject near to me, and I wanted to remind everyone (male and female), that there are wonderful opportunities to help support the cause:
  • You can find events in your area at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. If you are in Austin, TX, you can find the various (Susan G. Komen) events for October listed here 
  • If you are interested in supporting by way of volunteering for research studies, you can do that through the Susan Love/Avon Foundation's Army of Women here.  I am registered and I blogged about this organization back in January.  I am pleased to say that the army count is now 316,763 up from about 265,000 back when I first blogged about it
There are many organizations involved in some way in supporting breast cancer.  As an adult living in a connected, information-rich society I also feel I have to be responsible for my choices.  I found this article eye-opening, in which the author essential decries corporate involvement in promotions for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  In Suzanne's Reisman's words"...various corporations pledged during Breast Cancer Awareness Month found that most of these promotions led to increased sales and windfall profits that dwarfed the piddling donations that the extra sales generated. Until that moment, I was gung-ho about buying products marked with pink ribbons.  Read the rest of her article, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is Bunk. 

I think at the end of the day if an extra $X goes into supporting a cure/treatments for breast cancer, does it really matter if it generates $(X+Y) for the companies promoting these products?  The issue is if there are those who do not make an informed choice as to where they spend their $ and the return they get for it.


In the meantime, I am off to call my mammo partner to remind her to go for her annual mammogram.

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