Breast cancer awareness

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, is organized each year by major breast cancer charities to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those who have been affected by breast cancer, including both victims and families. Breast cancer in men which is rare, is also generally overlooked, and so several male breast cancer advocacy groups have joined together to globally establish the third week of October as "Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week."

So with awareness comes early diagnosis which leads to a better chance of full recovery. How much awareness is there though? Are people getting checked regularly? Is there still self-examination? When was the last time you even thought about breast cancer? Did you know that the first noticeable symptom of breast cancer is typically a lump that feels different from the rest of your breast tissue, and that the vast majority of breast cancer cases are discovered when the woman feels a lump? This is why awareness is such a big thing!

Casual reading on a daily blog is not a good place to get all of your facts. I won't ever pretend that to be the case. Check out the American Cancer Society's website though. Talk to your doctor too.

 

For a good overall look at coping, I'd also recommend a book by former television reporter Betty Rollin called First You Cry. It was 39 years ago that the highly public diagnoses of First Lady Betty Ford and Happy Rockefeller, wife of vice-president-designate Nelson Rockefeller brought breast cancer into the spotlight. Ms Rollin was diagnosed a year later in 1975, but her book still holds up well today. It, and so many things since, are all a part of the awareness.