Goodbye October with its pink ribbons, pink merchandise, and silly pink uniformed athletes. The color pink in October symbolizes breast cancer awareness month. Some people run races for “the cure” while others buy pink trinkets that promise to donate some (tiny) portion of the purchase price to an unspecified breast cancer charity.
There is a lot of controversy about Pinktober in the breast cancer community. Many survivors hate it as all the money spent on “going pink” translates into very little money spent on actual breast cancer research for better lives, better treatment, or an actual cure for the disease. After the merchants and the big cancer charities take their cut of the profits and donations, the little money left goes to promoting breast cancer awareness and to organizing more pinktober races and events for the next year. I think it is safe to say that the majority of the nation is already very aware that breast cancer exists. They may not be aware that early detection and yearly mammograms do not always save lives. Some 30-40% of us continue to die of the disease. There is nothing pretty or pink about any kind of death from cancer.
When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 in the Dark Ages of 1988, Pinktober didn’t exist. Neither did the internet with its information and support groups. It was still seen as an old ladies’ disease and at 29, I had no sense of community with others in my age group that were fighting this disease. I would have loved a pink ribbon and people running races on my behalf. Pinktober did what it set out to do and took breast cancer out of the closet and into the light.
But with that goal accomplished, Pinktober has turned into a massively commercial operation, a lumbering elephant, that exists with no clear purpose anymore. Instead of going pink, try donating directly to Metavivor, one of the few breast cancer charities that actually spends all its donation money on research for a cure. Or better yet, if you know someone with breast cancer, offer to drive them for treatments, look after their kids for a few hours, or bring by some groceries or a few home cooked meals. This will do more to support those living with the disease than all the pink ribbons or Save the Tatas teeshirts you can buy.
Happy November everyone! No more pink for another year. Thank God.
Sharon Greene November 3, 2014
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